It was bombastic news, announced in capital letters by Italian television news and websites. Wanted for 30 years, Matteo Messina Denaro was arrested last Monday (16) in his native Sicily.
The assessment that it represents the end of an era in the country is unanimous. Another is that the capture is, for now, far from implying the downfall of the mafia and the criminal group to which he belongs, Cosa Nostra.
Since he was arrested in a private clinic in Palermo, where he was treating cancer, and taken to a prison in L’Aquila, the Italian press has lived in an “urgent” and “exclusive” rhythm. It has already been revealed who owns the false identity that Denaro used –mathematician Andrea Bonafede–, the reaction of the 26-year-old daughter –”Leave me alone”– and the existence of three hiding places in Campobello di Mazara, in the southwest of the island .
In them, jewelry, designer clothes and other intimate belongings, such as condoms and pills for erectile dysfunction, would have been found. On one of the walls, a poster of “The Godfather”, a saga about the Corleone clan, the name of the city where one of the factions of Cosa Nostra emerged, with roots in the 19th century.
More important, however, are the documents collected. In folders, diaries, notebooks and sticky notes there are notes about money flows and telephone numbers. It could be the key to solving old crimes and reaching the circle of people who helped Denaro in the three decades he was on the run.
“It was a very important prison because the figure of Denaro is the conjunction between the mafia that shoots and the white collars of the mafia bourgeoisie. He is a murderer, at the same time that he maintained relations with the world of business and finance. He had power and prestige until the end”, says Alessandra Dino, professor at the University of Palermo. A mafia researcher for almost 30 years, among the books she has published is “Os Últimos Boss-Investigação sobre o Governo da Cosa Nostra” (ed. Unesp, 2013).
For the sociologist, the capture of Denaro means the end of an era, as he was the last big name that remained to be arrested by the leadership that organized attacks in the early 1990s, such as those carried out against anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, in 1992, which shocked the country, as well as the one that hit the then governor Piersanti Mattarella, in 1980, brother of the current Italian president.
Denaro’s companions in Cosa Nostra were captured years ago, such as Salvatore “Totò” Riina, who led the group in the 1980s, arrested in 1993, and his successor, Bernardo Provenzano, jailed in 2006 – both are dead. Denaro, 60, is the son of another mobster, Francesco, born in Castelvetrano. His rise took place throughout the 1980s, when the group took control of Palermo, in a bloody dispute – the famous photos of the Italian Letizia Bataglia are from that time.
Defined as charismatic, he declared himself an atheist in correspondence intercepted by the police, in which he cited philosophers and writers such as the Brazilian Jorge Amado. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for dozens of homicides, including that of a 12-year-old boy, kidnapped, strangled and thrown in acid, because his father, a mobster, had decided to collaborate with Justice.
According to Professor Dino, despite being an important leader within the mafia, he never became the “capo dei capi”, boss of bosses. “He was a leading figure, but he never commanded the summit, as did Riina,” he says. “But he continued to be an important reference, mainly with regard to the financial dimension of the organization, due to a series of businesses that passed through him.”
In the 30 years he was on the run, the Italian mafia went through a transition, preferring, says Dino, corruption to AK-47s and alliances with other criminals over simple elimination. Investigations on Denaro link him to businesses involving sectors such as construction, health, tourism, works of art, wind energy and the transport of toxic waste. Drug trafficking, which made the organization’s growth possible in the 1970s, is still a lucrative activity. But in the 21st century, the rule is to invest with diversity and discretion.
Like other Italian criminal groups that originated in the south, such as the ‘Ndrangheta in Calabria and the Camorra in Campania, Cosa Nostra operates throughout the territory and, at least since the 1970s, in Latin America. “São Paulo is the city where there is the greatest presence of Italians outside of Italy. It is easier to create bridges and agreements with local criminal groups”, says Dino, quoting Tommaso Buscetta, a member of Cosa Nostra who was arrested in Brazil in the 1980s.
The professor avoids making comparisons between the Italian groups, but points out a differential of Cosa Nostra in relation to the ‘Ndrangheta and the Camorra – its “very strong connection with the world of politics”. Evident, according to Dino, in the attacks against employees who celebrated Labor Day in the 1940s and in the homicides of authorities between 1992 and 1994. “Recent investigations of other crimes show links with the subversive right, sectors of Freemasonry and secret services.”
That is why expectations are high regarding what may appear in investigations into the material seized in Denaro’s hiding places. “Who made up your network of accomplices?” asks Dino. “Doctors, elite people are already appearing and, probably, politicians will also come.”
Although this arrest could lead to changes in the mafia, if there are no advances in the investigations, Denaro’s arrest will not pose a threat to the future of the group. “He is not alone. He is part of a network that will continue to work. His arrest closes an era, but does not end the ‘mafia problem’.”
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