They arrested Mattia Messina Denaro, Italy’s most wanted mafioso who has been on the run for 30 years

After 30 years on the runpersecuted as supreme head of the Sicilian mafia, Matteo Messina Denaro was captured this morning by the Italian carabinieri in a private clinic in Palermo, the capital of Sicily.

“This is one big win of the state against the mafia!” exclaimed the head of the Italian government Glory Melonicommenting on the news.

The Arma dei Carabineros reported that Messina Denaro, 60, was arrested at the Madalena clinic in central Palermo while “undergoing clinical therapies”.

The Trapani mafia boss, considered the boss of the Cosa Nostra bosses in Sicily, was known “seriusly sick” for the revelation made to him by the mafioso he trusted Salvatore Baiardo, arrested last year.

A priority mandate from Interpol also transformed Messina Denaro years ago one of the most wanted criminals in the worldafter some versions that he could have made trips abroad from Italy.

Messina Denaro was a very young mafia boss from the city of Messina and right-hand man of the big boss Salvatore “Totó” Riina, who had implemented a terrorist strategy against the state. Riina ordered the murders of magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in May 1992. He died in prison in November 2017.

It is estimated that after Riina’s arrest, exactly 30 years ago, on January 15, 1993, Messina Denaro was the favorite to inherit his successor Bernardo Provenzano, who succeeded him at the helm of Cosa nostra. Since then there have been warrants for his arrest for numerous offences.

There is only vague photographs and old recordings of his voicewhich have allowed digital reconstructions of its current physiognomy.

Messina Denaro is also considered the strategist for the 1993 Mafia terrorist attacks in Florence, Rome and Milan in which ten people died for which he received several life sentences.

The investigations that led to the imprisonment of the Cosa Nostra superfugante were coordinated by the prosecutor of Palermo Maurizio de Lucia and his replacement Paolo Guido.

The Italian news agency ANSA reported that Messina Denaro was transferred to an undisclosed location. The boss of the mafia bosses regularly underwent checks and therapies at the Maddalena clinic. Since yesterday evening, special units and policemen have discreetly taken control of the private medical center to protect other patients, ANSA reports.

For years, Justice had dismantled his multimillion-dollar empire of protections and funding.

The siege of the mafia boss was completed in September with the arrest of 35 faithful “picciotti” (soldiers) and bosses under his orders.

A week ago, Interior Minister Matteo Plantedosi gave another signal that Messina Denaro was surrounded. “I support justice for the victims, that he is arrested and I trust the police and the judiciary,” he said.

Rome. Corresponding.