Rome (CNN) -
- Matteo Messina Denaro, one of the bosses of the Cosa Nostra mafia in Sicily and the most wanted man in Italy, was detained by police while receiving treatment at a private clinic in Palermo, the prosecutor said Monday Maurizio deLucia.
He had been a fugitive since 1993 and was considered by Europol as one of the most wanted men in Europe, de Lucia told CNN.
Denaro was sentenced to life in absentia in 1992 for his role in the murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, and is held responsible for dozens of other Mafia-related murders.
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Known as Diabolik, he is considered one of the successors of Bernardo Provenzano, arrested on the outskirts of Corleone (Sicily) in April 2006.
He was arrested during a raid carried out at dawn by specialized agents of the anti-mafia Carabinieri.
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An alleged sighting of him in September 2021 led to a manhunt and hundreds of leads, according to the prosecutor.
This is breaking news and will be updated.