"The demonstration that the state has won and above all that it is not colluding but I also want to thank the carabinieri very much. I confess that this morning when I heard the news of the arrest I was excited, luckily I am here and I can witness this historic day, at the time I escaped the worst by a miracle, we know it but many years have passed and things have changed, it belongs to the past".
Maurizio Costanzo thus responds when asked by ANSA to the arrest today in Palermo of the super-fugitive Matteo Massina Denaro.
The journalist and presenter, in May 1993 escaped a mafia attack in Rome planned due to his strong commitment against Cosa Nostra.
But first Cosa Nostra tried to organize another ambush.
In February 1992, in fact, a fire group made up of mafiosi from Brancaccio and the province of Trapani was moved to Rome with the mission of killing Maurizio Costanzo, the magistrate Giovanni Falcone and the minister Claudio Martelli.
Failing to track down Falcone and Martelli, the group followed Costanzo for several days.
The conductor was followed for a few evenings after the recordings of the "Maurizio Costanzo Show" broadcast.
But when the plan was ready, the group was recalled to Sicily by boss Salvatore Riina.
After the first suspended attempt, in May 1993 another fire group made up of mafiosi from Brancaccio and Corso dei Mille, which however did not include Matteo Messina Denaro, however present in the first expedition, arrived again in Rome to carry out the attack on Costanzo.
After several inspections, a Fiat Uno was stolen which was filled with explosives and parked in via Fauro.
On the first day the device did not explode due to a defect.
On the second day the bomb exploded but Salvatore Benigno pressed the button late: Costanzo was waiting in an Alfa Romeo 164, while a blue, unarmored Mercedes appeared.
The presenter and Maria De Filippi were unharmed, the Lancia Thema with the two bodyguards on board was scratched by the explosion (the two men were injured).
A school wall collapsed in the explosion, six cars were destroyed and sixty damaged.
"The applause from the Palermitans moved me", Costanzo reiterates, who also reflects on the boss's long absence 'at home' "evidently helped by trusted people who guaranteed him the possibility of hiding for a long time".