Italy on Monday arrested mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, the country’s most wanted fugitive, at a health clinic in Palermo, Sicily, after 30 years on the run, according to Italian paramilitary police.
Messina Denaro, 60, was detained at the clinic where he was receiving treatment for a medical condition, Carabinieri General Pasquale Angelosanto, who heads the police force’s special operations squad, said in a statement.
Messina Denaro was seen in a photo released by police wearing a brown leather jacket, a white cap and tinted glasses. Police transported him to a secret location immediately after his arrest, Italian state television reported.
He was considered the top boss of Sicily’s Cosa Nostra even while he was on the run and had a power base in the western Sicilian port city of Trapani. Messina Denaro was the last of three high-level fugitive mob bosses who had evaded authorities for decades.
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Italian fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro was arrested Monday.
Messina Denaro, who was convicted of dozens of murders, faces multiple life sentences.
He will be put behind bars for two 1992 bombings in Sicily that killed top anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. He was also convicted of the murder of the young son of a mob traitor. That boy was strangled and his body was dissolved in acid.
His arrest on Monday came 30 years and one day after convicted drug lord Salvatore “Toto” Riina was captured on January 15, 1993 in a Palermo apartment after 23 years on the run. Messina Denaro went underground that summer as Italy sought to crack down on the Sicilian crime syndicate in response to the murders of Falcone and Borsellino.
A composite image showing a computer-generated image released by the Italian Polic, right, and an image of top mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro.
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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wrote on Twitter that the capture of Messina Denaro is a “great victory for the state, which shows that it does not give in to the mafia.”
The Italian mafia boss who set the record for longest time on the run was Bernardo Provenzano. He was captured on a farm near Corleone, Sicily, in 2006 after 38 years as a fugitive. Following Provenzano’s arrest, authorities turned their attention to Messina Denaro.
A computer generated image released by Italian police, of mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro.
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There were multiple reported sightings of Messina Denaro, but he was not taken into police custody until Monday.
Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
