Notorious Italian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro has died at the age of 61. Italian media announced this on Monday. Messina Denaro was at the top of the Sicilian mafia, the cosa nostra. The mafia boss was suffering from cancer and was admitted a few weeks ago to the San Salvatore hospital in the city of L’Aquila, according to writes the newspaper Corierre della Serra. On Saturday, Italian media reported that Messina Denaro had fallen into a coma and could not be treated further.
The mafia boss was on the run for thirty years, from 1993 to January this year. After three decades under the radar of the Italian police, Messina Denaro was arrested in a cancer clinic in Palermo, Sicily. He received treatment there under an assumed name, probably for colon cancer. The fact that the mafia boss managed to evade the Italian police for half his life was allegedly made possible by a network of accomplices.
Matteo Messina Denaro, born in 1962 in the Sicilian town of Castelvetrano, followed his father Francesco Messina Denaro into Cosa Nostra. According to Italian police, he committed his first murder when he was eighteen. He became infamous for his involvement in violent crimes. For example, he helped plan the murders of investigating judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, who fought against the Italian mafia, in 1992. Messina Denaro was also convicted for his role in bombings in Rome, Florence and Milan in 1993, which killed ten people. came to life.
The mafioso was also involved in the kidnapping of 12-year-old Giuseppe Di Matteo. The boy’s father, who was involved in the liquidations of investigating judges Falcone and Borsellino, was arrested and testified about the murders. The mafia then kidnapped his son, held him captive for two years and eventually murdered him.
Also read: Last fugitive ‘godfather’ of Sicilian mafia caught