Matteo Messina Denaro: The notorious mastermind who escaped for 30 years – Video of his arrest

Today the news of the arrest of one of the ten most wanted criminals in the world – the leader of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra and the Italian mafia in general, Matteo Messina Denaro, who was wanted internationally for 30 years, is making the rounds of the world.

Denaro was gathered in the morning at the La Maddalena clinic in Palermo, where he was undergoing tests due to an oncological problem.

The 60-year-old arch-mafioso walked out of a clinic under strong guard – as people applauded – and was already taken to a secret location.

Vedere le persone che sultano per la capture di Matteo Messina Denaro è la cosa più bella che vedrete oggi (a parte l’arresto). pic.twitter.com/VevGFfYD7v

— Ida De Vico (@idaho____) January 16, 2023

In 1992 he was sentenced in absentia to life in prison for the murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borcellino. He was also sentenced to life in prison the following year for the bombings in Florence, Rome and Milan that killed 10 people.

Since 1993, Denaro “disappeared” and entered the lists of the most wanted fugitives, without anyone being able to locate him.

Finally today, January 16, the Carabinieri arrested Denaro inside a “Palermo health structure, where he had gone for clinical treatments”, according to the official announcement.

#MatteoMessinaDenaro era latitante dall’estate del 1993 #ANSA https://t.co/GMXpmpc2AF

— Agenzia ANSA (@Agenzia_Ansa) January 16, 2023

Denaro rose gradually and eventually took the leadership position in Cosa Nostra – the Sicilian mafia – after the arrest of the then leader, “Baron” Salvatore Lo Piccolo, in November 2007.

But already in 2001 he was considered as the archmafioso of the organization as at that time the magazine L’Espresso dedicated its cover to him with the title “Ecco il nuovo capo della Mafia” (This is the new boss of the Mafia).

Matteo Messina Denaro’s first photo. #matteomessinadenaro #messinadenaro pic.twitter.com/ifS2ySOvhJ

— Giuseppe Candela (@GiusCandela) January 16, 2023

After the deaths of the originals Bernardo Provenzano in 2016 and Salvatore Riina in 2017, Denaro became the “absolute boss”, the leader of the leaders of the Italian mafia.

Mobster from the crib

Born on April 26, 1962 in Castelvetrano in the province of Trapani, Sicily, Denaro was a mobster from birth.

His father, Francesco Messina Denaro, known as Don Ciccio, was the head of the Castelvetrano mafia and head of the Mafia Commission of the Trapani region.

Young Mateo learned to use a gun at 14 and committed the first of many murders at 18.

Matteo “consolidated” his position in Cosa Nostra shortly after, when he killed the rival organization’s boss from Alcamo, Vincenzo Milazzo, and strangled his three-months-pregnant girlfriend.

In total it is estimated that he killed at least 50 people on contact. “I filled a graveyard by myself,” he once boasted – and he was right.

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