Italy’s most wanted mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro arrested, police say
Italy’s most wanted mafia boss, Matteo Messina Denaro, has been arrested by police after 30 years on the run.
Denaro is alleged to be a boss of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra mafia and has been on the run since 1993.
He was detained while at a private hospital in the Sicilian capital Palermo.
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni thanked authorities for the arrest and deemed the operation a “great victory”.
Denaro was sentenced in absentia to a life term for his role in the 1992 murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.
He also faces a life sentence for his role in bomb attacks in Florence, Rome and Milan which killed 10 people the following year.
Last year police said he was still able to issue commands concerning the way the mafia was run in the area around the western Sicilian city of Trapani, his regional stronghold, despite being on the run.
