Sicilian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, who was arrested in January after thirty years on the run, has died in a hospital in central Italy, the ANSA information company reported on Monday.
The 61-year-old had colon most cancers, for which he had sought therapy whereas on the run – a choice that introduced him to the eye of authorities, who arrested him at a clinic in Palermo.
Messina Denaro was one of the vital ruthless bosses in Cosa Nostra, the real-life Sicilian crime syndicate depicted within the Godfather movies.
He was convicted by the courts of involvement within the homicide of anti-mafia decide Giovanni Falcone in 1992 and in lethal bombings in Rome, Florence and Milan in 1993.
Certainly one of his six life sentences was additionally handed down for the kidnapping and subsequent homicide of the 12-year-old son of a witness within the Falcone case.
Messina Denaro disappeared in the summertime of 1993 and spent the subsequent thirty years on the run because the Italian state cracked down on the Sicilian mafia.
However he remained the highest identify on Italy’s most wished record and more and more turned a legendary determine.
In a shocking blow, he was arrested on January 16, 2023 when he visited a well being clinic the place he was handled underneath a false identification.
He was held in a most safety jail in L’Aquila, central Italy, the place he continued therapy for his most cancers in his cell.
In August, Messina Denaro was transferred to the inmate ward of the native hospital, the place his situation had deteriorated in latest days.
This weekend, media experiences stated he was in an “irreversible coma.” Medics had stopped feeding him and he had requested to not be resuscitated, she added.
After Messina Denaro went on the run, there was intense hypothesis that he had gone overseas – and he most likely did.
However it will definitely turned out that he was staying close to his birthplace of Castelvetrano in western Sicily.
Investigators had scoured the Sicilian countryside for Messina Denaro for years, searching for hideouts and eavesdropping on members of his household and associates.
They have been heard discussing the medical issues of an unnamed particular person affected by most cancers, in addition to eye issues – an individual investigators have been certain was Messina Denaro.
They used a nationwide well being care system database to seek for male sufferers of the proper age and medical historical past, and eventually received in.
However whereas his arrest introduced some aid to his victims, the mafia boss all the time remained silent.
In interviews carried out in custody since his arrest, Messina Denaro even denied that he was a member of Cosa Nostra.
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