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Police action in front of one of Denaro's hideouts
Photo: Miguel Medina / AFP
After the arrest of mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, Italian investigators apparently found a total of three hiding places for the 60-year-old.
This week, during their search in the town of Campobello di Mazara, the police discovered another apartment and a secret room in a third building next to the apartment in which the chief godfather of Cosa Nostra is said to have lived until his arrest.
The investigators found valuables such as jewelry and expensive clothing in the premises.
According to media reports on Friday, a poster of Mafia boss Vito Corleone, played by Hollywood actor Marlon Brando, from the movie "The Godfather" hung in an apartment on Friday.
Cell phones, medical reports, condoms and Viagra pills were also found.
Convicted of murder in absentia
Messina Denaro has been on the run since 1993 and is the country's most wanted mafioso.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia for dozens of murders, including those of mafia hunters Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.
He was arrested last Monday when he tried to be treated in a cancer clinic in Palermo under a false name.
Many Italian politicians celebrated the arrest as a historic success in the fight against the mafia.
Messina Denaro is now in the high-security prison in the city of L'Aquila in Abruzzo, which has particularly harsh prison conditions for former mafiosi and serious criminals.
In detention, the Sicilian continues his chemotherapy for a tumor in his intestines.
Messina Denaro hired his niece Lorenza Guttadauro, whose grandfather was also a mafia boss, as a lawyer.
Possible helper in custody
The investigators hope that Messina Denaro will cooperate or even offer to be a key witness.
In return, as a cancer patient, he could be granted easier prison conditions.
However, so far there have been no signs of cooperation, as reported by the media.
A man remains in custody who drove Messina Denaro to the hospital in Palermo on Monday and who has so far stated that he did not know the identity of the mafia boss.
According to media reports, however, the police found out that he lived in Campobello di Mazara in Sicily, right next to the building where one of Messina Denaro's hiding places was found.
It is still unclear whether Mafia helpers could have removed important documents from those secret rooms before the investigators arrived.
"We can't tell yet," said Pasquale Angelosanto of the Carabinieri Special Forces.
"But I hope that if someone was there, they might have left some traces."
bbr/dpa