Matteo Messina Denaro, Italy’s most wanted mafia boss, has been arrested in Sicily after a 30-year manhunt. The arrest was made by more than 100 members of the Italian armed forces in a private clinic in Sicily’s capital, Palermo. The arrest sparked cheers and applause from onlookers in the streets.
Messina Denaro, also known as “Diabolik” and “U Siccu”, had been on the run since 1993. He is alleged to be a boss of the notorious Cosa Nostra mafia and was tried and sentenced to life in jail in absentia in 2002 over numerous murders including the 1992 killing of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, the deadly 1993 bomb attacks in Milan, Florence and Rome, and the kidnapping, torture and killing of the 11-year-old son of a mafioso turned state witness.
The mafia boss also oversaw racketeering, illegal waste dumping, money-laundering and drug-trafficking for the powerful Cosa Nostra organised crime syndicate. He was reportedly the protege of Totò Riina, the head of the Corleone clan, who was arrested in 1993 after 23 years on the run.