Italian Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, who had been one of Italy’s most sought-after fugitives until his capture earlier this year, has passed away.
Denaro, aged 61, was believed to be a prominent figure in the notorious Cosa Nostra Mafia and spent three decades evading authorities before his arrest in January. He had been undergoing cancer treatment at the time and had been transferred from prison to a hospital a month prior to his demise.
Denaro was implicated in numerous murders and had received a life sentence in absentia in 2002 for his involvement in the killings of anti-Mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in 1992. He had openly boasted about his ability to “fill a cemetery” with his victims. In addition to these crimes, he oversaw various illegal activities such as racketeering, illegal waste disposal, money laundering, and drug trafficking on behalf of the Cosa Nostra.
Despite being on the run since 1993, Denaro was believed to have continued giving orders to his subordinates from undisclosed locations.
Reports from local media indicate that he slipped into an irreversible coma on Friday while being treated at a hospital in L’Aquila, central Italy, and had requested no aggressive medical intervention. Denaro had previously undergone surgery related to his cancer but had not shown signs of recovery after the most recent operation.
L’Aquila Mayor Pierluigi Biondi confirmed Denaro’s death, describing it as “the conclusion of a life lived without remorse or regret—a painful chapter in recent history that cannot be erased.”
Apart from his criminal activities, Denaro was considered Cosa Nostra’s last “secret-keeper,” as many informants and prosecutors believed he held crucial information and the identities of individuals involved in several high-profile Mafia crimes.
His arrest in January involved over 100 members of the armed forces and occurred at a private clinic in Palermo, Sicily, where he was receiving chemotherapy. For years, Denaro had symbolized the state’s struggles in apprehending the top echelons of organized crime groups.
Italian investigators had come close to capturing him by monitoring his close associates, resulting in the 2013 arrest of his sister, Patrizia, and several of his associates. Authorities had also seized valuable businesses linked to him, leaving him increasingly isolated.
However, due to the scarcity of photographs, police had to rely on digital reconstructions to depict his appearance in the years following his fugitive status, and a recording of his voice was only released in 2021.
In September 2021, a Formula 1 fan from Liverpool was arrested at gunpoint in a restaurant in the Netherlands, mistakenly believed to be Denaro.
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