The last “chief” was Sicilian, “chief of chiefs” V.I Cosa Nostra, a bloodthirsty man with fifty murders behind him, the most wanted fugitive in Europe and one of the most dangerous criminals in the world. Matteo Messina Denaro, 60 years old, a fugitive from justice for 30 years, was arrested by the Carabinieri del Ros, a special department of this military body. Messina Denaraualso known as Diabolik, was arrested in Maddalena’s private clinic in Palermo, the news with which all Italian media are opening this morning.
The son of a Mafia boss in his hometown, Castelvetrano (Province of Trapani, Sicily) and a historical ally of Corleonesi in Toto Rina, he escaped from justice in the summer of 1993, in a letter he wrote to his girlfriend at the time, Angela, after the massacres of the Mafia in the Rome, Milan and Florence attacks heralded With the beginning of a new life. Messina Denaro wrote to him: “You will know about me, they will paint me as a devil, but they are all lies,” noting that she learned, soon after, that her name would be associated with a series of attacks.
For years, hundreds of police officers have been investigating in order to catch him. Today came the end of his adventure. The time he was on the run is almost a record, as is his time with his loyal Mafia allies, Toto Riina, who escaped in handcuffs and hid for 23 years, and Bernardo Provenzano, who managed to avoid imprisonment for 38 years.
Messina Denaro was sentenced to life imprisonment for dozens of murders, including the murder of little Giuseppe Di Matteo, the repentant son of a mafioso. The boy was strangled and milked in acid after nearly two years in captivity. A court in Caltanissetta (Sicily) sentenced Messina Denaro to life imprisonment in absentia for being one of those responsible for the attacks in Palermo, the capital of Sicily, that took the lives of Giovanni Falcone, Paolo Borsellino, and their entourage in 1992. The murders, which shocked Italy, have not yet been prosecuted. He was the boss of Cosa Nostra at the time Toto RinaNicknamed “The Beast”, the criminal responsible for dozens of murders. His trusted man is Matteo Messina Denaro, who died in prison on November 17, 2017, Riina of Corleone, and became his successor as head of Cosa Nostra.
An “unseen figure”, she has a daughter whom he has never seen
Until today, Messina Denarau was considered an invisible figure. He has a daughter, whom he has never seen. He is known to be a lover of luxury and women, a misogynist, a ruthless killer capable of ordering the killing of judges who were national heroes, such as Falcone and Borsellino, or committing murders out of petty jealousy. Because of his thinness, he was called “u Siccu” (the dry one), with a look marked by a slight squint. He called himself “Diabolik”. Mafia testimonies reported that this was done plastic surgery In Bulgaria, strabismus was performed at the Barraquer Clinic in Barcelona.
Messina Denaro is the richest gangster in Cosa Nostra. In the process that judged Messina, former capo Antonino Giuffre described “the Trapanese mafia – that of Messina Denaro – as the most powerful, to the point of becoming a meeting point between Arab countries, America and Freemasonry”.
The big mafia boss had amassed a treasure, which he administered generously as a management strategy for his enormous power. He wanted to be invisible so as not to cause noise and thus better protect his and Cosa Nostra’s economic interests. Denarau Messina was like a ghost. But he quietly ran an impressive hidden network, which polluted productive sectors, with interests from northern Italy to Sicily. He was the real face of the mafia: his face, voice and fingerprints are unknown. was invisible. His arrest was a major challenge to the country, which today can claim victory.
