Italy’s most wanted mafia boss, Matteo Messina Denaro, was arrested by armed police at a private hospital in Sicily on Monday, where the man who has been on the run since 1993 was being treated for cancer.
Nicknamed “Diabolik” and “‘U Siccu” (The Skinny One), Messina Denaro had been sentenced in absentia to a life term for his role in the 1992 murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, crimes that shocked the nation and sparked a crackdown on Cosa Nostra.
Messina Denaro, 60, was led away from Palermo’s “La Maddalena” hospital by two uniformed carabinieri police and bundled into a waiting black minivan. He was wearing a brown fur-lined jacket, glasses and a brown and white woolly hat.
Images on social media showed locals applauding and shaking hands with police in balaclavas as the minivan was driven away from the suburban hospital to a secret location.
Judicial sources said he was being treated for cancer and had an operation last year, followed by a series of appointments under a false name.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni hailed the arrest as “a great victory for the state”.
Maria Falcone, sister of the murdered judge, echoed that sentiment.
“It proves that mafiosi, despite their delusions of omnipotence, are ultimately doomed to defeat in the conflict with the democratic state,” she said.
