By Patrick Smith -
NBC News
Italy's most wanted man, mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, was arrested Monday in Palermo, Sicily's capital, after three decades on the run, according to the Italian police's Carabinieri division.
Messina Denaro, a convicted murderer who has eluded authorities for 30 years, is believed to be the leader of the notorious Cosa Nostra organized crime group.
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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in a statement that the arrest was "a great victory for the state that shows that it never gives in to the Mafia."
General Pasquale Angelosanto, who heads the Carabinieri's special operations squad, detailed that Messina Denaro was detained at a private clinic in Palermo where he was being treated for an unspecified medical problem.
A photo released by police early Monday showed Messina Denaro in a police car - visibly older than his photos from the 1990s - with two officers.
Matteo Messina Denaro after his arrest on Monday.
He is wanted for alleged crimes dating back to the 1990s.Ufficio Stampa Comando Generale Carabinieri
Police warned in September last year that despite his low profile, Messina Denaro could still give orders to organized crime groups around the western Sicilian city of Trapani.
He was sentenced to life in prison - in a trial he did not attend - for his part in the 1992 murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.
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He faces another life sentence for his role in bombings in Rome, Florence and Milan in 1993.
This arrest is the latest in a series of high-level arrests of mafia bosses.
Last year, Rocco Morabito, then Italy's second most wanted fugitive and head of the powerful Ndrangheta mafia group, was arrested in Brazil after 28 years on the run and extradited to Rome.
In 2006, police arrested Cosa Nostra boss Bernardo Provenzano, dubbed the
Capo di Capi
, or boss of bosses, by police after 43 years of persecution.
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Italian prosecutors accuse Messina Denaro of helping to organize the kidnapping of 12-year-old Giuseppe Di Matteo in 1993, in what they say was an attempt to dissuade his father from testifying against the mafia.
The boy was held captive for two years before he was strangled and his body dissolved in acid, according to prosecutors.
Since Messina Denaro was placed on Italy's wanted list in 1993, there has been worldwide interest in his situation, including a spectacular case of mistaken identity.
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In September 2021, a British Formula One fan from Liverpool, who was dining with his son at a restaurant in The Hague at the time, was mistakenly detained by armed Dutch police officers at the request of the Italian authorities on suspicion of being the elusive mobster, as the man's lawyer then declared to the media.
Messina Denaro, believed to have orchestrated the killings of anti-mafia prosecutors, was also the lead in the Netflix series
World's Most Wanted
.
