Italy arrests No 1 fugitive Mafia boss, 30 years on the run

Italy arrests No 1 fugitive Mafia boss, 30 years on the run

ROME (AP) ” Italy™s No. 1 fugitive, convicted Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, was captured on Monday at a private clinic inside Palermo, Sicily, following trio decades on the run, Italian paramilitary police said.

Messina Denaro was captured at the clinic where he was receiving behaviour towards for an undisclosed medical condition, said Carabinieri Gen. Pasquale Angelosanto, who heads the police force™s exceptional operations squad.

A place of set of two of Carabinieri officers, every one one holding an arm, walked him down the front steps of the upscale clinic accompanied by every one one other accompanied by led him to a waiting black van on a gray morning. Messina Denaro was wearing a brown leather jacket trimmed inside shearling accompanied by every one one other accompanied by a matching white-and-brown skull lid accompanied by every one one other accompanied by his trademark tinted glasses. His face looked wan accompanied by every one one other accompanied by he looked unswerving ahead. He was taken to a secret location by police unswerving away following the arrest, Italian condition television reported.

A young male when he went into hiding, he is now 60. Messina Denaro, who had a ability base inside the port city of Trapani, inside western Sicily, was considered Sicily™s Cosa Nostra top boss flat while a fugitive.

He was the last of trio longtime fugitive top-level Mafia bosses who had for decades eluded capture, accompanied by every one one other accompanied by hundreds of police officers over the years had been tasked accompanied by tracking him down.

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Messina Denaro, who was tried inside absentia accompanied by every one one other accompanied by convicted of dozens of murders, faces multiple actuality sentences.

He is place to exist imprisoned for place of set of two bombings inside Sicily inside 1992 that murdered top anti-Mafia prosecutors, Giovanni Falcone accompanied by every one one other accompanied by Paolo Borsellino, Falcone™s spouse accompanied by every one one other accompanied by some of their bodyguards. Among other grisly crimes he was convicted of is the murder of a Mafia turncoat™s young son, who was abducted accompanied by every one one other accompanied by strangled earlier to his body was dissolved inside a vat of acid.

The arrest Monday came 30 years accompanied by every one one other accompanied by a day following the Jan. 15, 1993, capture of convicted boss of bosses Salvatore Toto Riina, inside a Palermo apartment following 23 years on the run. Messina Denaro went into hiding inside summer of that same year, while the Italian condition stiffened its crackdown on the Sicilian crime syndicate following the murders of Falcone accompanied by every one one other accompanied by Borsellino.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni tweeted that Messina Denaro™s capture is a great victory of the state, which shows that it doesn™t surrender inside the face of the Mafia.

Italy™s Mafia boss who place the record for the longest hour dated on the lam was Bernardo Provenzano, captured inside a farmhouse near Corleone, Sicily, inside 2006 following 38 years while a fugitive. Once Provenzano was inside police hands, the hunt focused on Messina Denaro, nevertheless inside malice of numerous reported sightings of the boss, he managed to elude arrest, until Monday.

That all trio top bosses were ultimately arrested inside the heart of Sicily while they conducted decades of a clandestine actuality won™t astonishment Italy™s police accompanied by every one one other accompanied by prosecutors. Law enforcement have lengthy said that such bosses exist contingent on on contacts accompanied by every one one other accompanied by confidentiality of fellow mobsters accompanied by every one one other accompanied by complicit family members to go the fugitives from hideout to hideout, inside attendance accompanied by basic needs, exist fond of food accompanied by every one one other accompanied by clean clothing accompanied by every one one other accompanied by communication, accompanied by every one one other accompanied by a cipher of silence known while omerta™.

Riina accompanied by every one one other accompanied by Provenzano lived not here the last years of their actuality inside the strictest of Italian prison conditions reserved for unrepentant organized crime bosses accompanied by every one one other accompanied by refused to cooperate accompanied by investigators.

Messina Denaro was believed to have enjoyed a additional comfortable way of actuality inside his decades hiding from police, leaving some to speculate whether he ability concur to cooperate accompanied by prosecutors inside exchange for additional lenient prison conditions.

During his years on the run, he had a series of lovers accompanied by every one one other accompanied by passed hour dated by playing video games, according to Italian media reports.

One of his girlfriends was arrested accompanied by every one one other accompanied by convicted of having hidden him for a hour dated while he was a fugitive. But while he had a frailty for women, Messina Denaro could exist cruel, strangling a woman while she was pregnant, according to Italian media.

Right following he went into hiding, Messina Denaro sent a letter to his at that hour dated girlfriend, saying, You™ll hear talk concerning me, they will colouring me exist fond of the devil, nevertheless it™s all falsehoods,³ ANSA quoted the letter while saying.

Wary of actuality tracked down by cellphone use, Mafia bosses regularly tourist centre to handwritten notes known while pizzini. When Provenzano was nabbed inside his rustic, almost primitive, hideaway inside the countryside, police found a stash of such notes.

With the crackdown that began inside the 1990s opposed to Sicily™s Cosa Nostra, the island™s mafiosi started losing their dominance inside Italy compared to other organized crime syndicates.

While the Sicilian Mafia was significantly weakened by a small armed strength of turncoats, on the mainland, the ˜ndrangheta syndicate, based inside the toe of the Italian peninsula, steadily eclipsed Cosa Nostra inside stretch not here accompanied by every one one other accompanied by influence. Unlike Sicily™s crime syndicates, the ™ndrangheta draws its footsoldiers based on family ties, leaving it less inside danger to turncoats. The ™ndrangheta is now one of the world™s most strong cocaine traffickers.

But the Sicilian Mafia still runs medicine trafficking operations. Other lucrative illicit businesses include infiltration of condition works contracts accompanied by every one one other accompanied by extortion of small labour owners who are threatened if they don™t regularly pay defence money.