Rome/Milan
CNN
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Matteo Messina Denaro, one of the bosses of the Cosa Nostra mafia Prosecutor Maurizio De Lucia said on Monday that Sicily and Italy’s most wanted man had been arrested by police while being treated at a private health clinic in Palermo.
De Lucia told CNN that he had been a fugitive since 1993 and was considered by Europol as one of the most wanted men in Europe.
“It is a victory for all the police forces that have worked together these long years to bring dangerous fugitives to justice,” Italy’s police chief, Lamberto Giannini, congratulated the Carabinieri – Italy’s military police – and Palermo. said in the statement. Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Government officials took to Twitter to celebrate the arrest as a “victory” for Italy.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni tweeted: “A huge victory for the state which shows it does not give up in the face of the mafia.”
Defense Minister Guido Crosetto called the arrests “a sign of a state that wins against the mafia”.
Denaro was sentenced in absentia to life in prison in 1992 for his role in the murders of non-Mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, and is believed to be responsible for dozens of Mafia-related murders.
Known as Diabolik, he is considered one of the successors of Bernardo Provenzano, who was arrested in April 2006 outside Corleone, Sicily.
He was taken into custody during a raid carried out in the early hours of the morning by special agents with the anti-mafia Carabinieri.
The prosecutor said that in September 2021 he was searched due to suspicious sightings and received hundreds of tips.