Italy's most-wanted mafia boss, Matteo Messina Denaro, has been arrested after three decades on the run during an encounter with law enforcement personnel in Sicily.
The notorious mafia leader, who is known to be the head of the Cosa Nostra Mafia, was previously tried and sentenced to life in jail in absentia in 2022 over several murders. During the latest encounter, more than 100 members of the armed forces were involved.
Italy's Most Notorious Mafia Boss
Italian media reported that the mafia leader was taken into custody by police officers shortly before 9:00 a.m. GMT. He was later taken to an undisclosed location by the Carabinieri and was reported to have been visiting the clinic under a fake name for a course of chemotherapy.
In video footage that was shared by Italian media, there seemed to be people standing in the street and applauding the law enforcement personnel as they led Messina Denaro away.
He has been convicted of many crimes, including the 1992 killing of anti-Mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino and the deadly 1993 bomb attacks that targeted Spain, Florence, and Rome, as per BBC.
The mafia leader also once boasted that he was able to "fill a cemetery" with the bodies of his victims. Messina Denaro is also believed to have overseen racketeering, illegal waste dumping, money laundering, and drug trafficking for the powerful Cosa Nostra organized crime syndicate.
He was previously thought of as the protege of Toto Riina, who was the head of the Corleone clan and arrested in 1993 after living for 23 years on the run from law enforcement. Several clans have nicknamed Messina Denaro "Diabolik," which is the name of an uncatchable thief in a comic book series.
The mafia boss is thought to be Cosa Nostra's "secret keeper" as many informers and prosecutors believe that he holds all the information and the names of those who were involved in several of the most high-profile crimes conducted by the mafia.
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Who is Matteo Messina Denaro?
The 60-year-old mafia boss is the last of Italy's three long-time fugitive mafia leaders to be arrested. Reports noted that Messina Denaro initially tried to escape law enforcement personnel during their encounter but surrendered without resistance later on after he realized that the facility was completely surrounded, according to Business Insider.
Prosecutors also accused the mafia boss of helping to plan the kidnapping of a 12-year-old boy, identified as Giuseppe Di Matteo, in 1993. They added that the young child was taken captive for two years before he was strangled and dissolved in acid after his father cooperated with the police.
The 60-year-old has also been linked to dozens of other mafia-related murders, becoming a fugitive in 1993 and making Forbes' list as one of the ten most-wanted criminals in the world in 2010.
In a statement, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said that Messina Denaro's arrest was a "great victory for the state that shows it never gives up in the face of the Mafia." The head of the Carabinieri's special operations squad, Gen. Pasquale Angelosanto, said that the mafia boss was arrested at a private clinic in Palermo, Sicily's capital, said NBC News.
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