- Matteo Messina Denaro, Italy’s convicted Mafia boss, passed away in a hospital prison ward after battling a serious illness.
- Denaro’s death follows the recent capture of the mastermind behind some of Sicilian Mafia’s most brutal murders.
- He was convicted of multiple murders and played a part in two bombings in 1992 that killed prominent anti-Mafia prosecutors in Italy.
Matteo Messina Denaro, a convicted criminal who orchestrated some of the Sicilian Mafia’s most brutal killings, has died in a hospital prison ward in Italy. He was captured a few months ago after evading authorities for decades, and Italian prosecutors confirmed his death on Monday.
Rai state radio reported from L’Aquila hospital in central Italy that the heavy police presence guarding his hospital room had been moved to the hospital morgue. Denaro had been in a coma since Friday, according to doctors.
The L’Aquila prosecutors office released a brief statement announcing his death. Although no time of death was stated, both the L’Aquila office and the prosecutors in Palermo, Sicily, have requested an autopsy. It was widely known that Denaro had been suffering from a severe illness.
ITALIAN AUTHORITIES ARREST MAFIA BOSS AFTER 30 YEARS ON THE RUN
According to Italian media, Denaro’s burial is expected to take place later this week in Sicily.
Messina Denaro, believed by investigators to be one of the most powerful bosses in the Mafia, spent much of his 30 years as a fugitive in western Sicily, receiving assistance from complicit townspeople. His capture on January 16, 2023, was facilitated by his need for colon cancer treatment.
Investigators had been pursuing him for years and discovered that he was receiving chemotherapy under a fake name at a clinic in Palermo. By accessing Italy’s national health system database, they were able to locate him and apprehend him during a treatment appointment.
A computer-generated image of Matteo Messina Denaro is displayed at the Palermo police headquarters in Italy on April 6, 2007. (AP Photo/Alessandro Fucarini, File)
Denaro’s arrest occurred exactly 30 years after the capture of Salvatore “Toto” Riina, the Mafia’s “boss of bosses,” on January 15, 1993, in a Palermo apartment. Denaro went into hiding later that same year.
While on the run, Denaro was tried and convicted in absentia for multiple murders, including his involvement in planning the bombings that killed Italy’s leading anti-Mafia prosecutors, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, in 1992.
Prosecutors had hoped that Denaro would cooperate and reveal secrets about Cosa Nostra. However, Italian media reports indicate that he made it clear he would not provide any information immediately after his capture.
ITALIAN POLICE SEIZE CACHE OF DRUGS DECORATED WITH FACE OF MAFIA LEADERS
Upon his arrest, Denaro began serving multiple life sentences in a high-security prison in L’Aquila, located in Italy’s central Apennine mountain region. He continued to receive chemotherapy for his colon cancer while in prison. However, in recent weeks, his health deteriorated after undergoing two surgeries, leading to his transfer to the hospital’s prison ward, where he ultimately passed away.
His refusal to speak mirrored the actions of Riina and Bernardo Provenzano, another top Mafia boss, who was captured in Corleone, Sicily, in 2006 after 37 years in hiding – the longest time a Mafia boss had evaded arrest. After Provenzano’s capture, authorities focused their efforts on capturing Denaro, despite numerous reported sightings.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Following the assassinations of Falcone and Borsellino, which also claimed the lives of Falcone’s wife and several police bodyguards, dozens of lower-level Mafia bosses and foot soldiers cooperated with authorities. Denaro’s extensive list of murder convictions includes the killing of the young son of an informant. The boy was abducted, strangled, and his body dissolved in acid.
Denaro and several other top Cosa Nostra bosses were also found guilty of orchestrating a series of bombings in 1993 that targeted two churches in Rome, the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, and an art gallery in Milan. These attacks resulted in the deaths of 10 people in Florence and Milan.
According to informants, these bombings aimed to pressure the Italian government into easing prison conditions for convicted mobsters.
When Denaro was arrested, Palermo’s chief prosecutor, Maurizio De Lucia, declared: “We have captured the last of the massacre masterminds.”
