Italian police arrest most wanted mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro

MILAN - Italy’s Carabinieri police on Monday (Jan 16) arrested Matteo Messina Denaro, the country’s most wanted mafia boss who had been on the run for three decades.

Messina Denaro, who was detained in the Sicilian capital Palermo, is alleged to be a boss of Sicily’s Cosa Nostra mafia.

He has been sentenced in absentia to a life term for his role in the 1992 murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.

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He also faces a life sentence for his role in bomb attacks in Florence, Rome and Milan which killed 10 people the following year.

Police said in September 2022 that he was still able to issue commands relating to the way the mafia was run in the area around the western Sicilian city of Trapani, his regional stronghold, despite his long disappearance.