Why Messina Denaro boss of Italian mafia avoided justice for a long time
2023.01.18 13:54
Why Messina Denaro boss of Italian mafia avoided justice for a long time
By Kristina Sobol
Budrigannews.com – Before his capture on Monday, brutal Sicilian Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro was Italy’s most wanted criminal. He had been on the run for 30 years. The following are some important details about his arrest and its significance:
60-year-old Messina Denaro was the last fugitive from a generation of mobsters who orchestrated a series of bombings and murders that terrorized Italy in the early 1990s.
In the unlikely event that Messina Denaro agrees to speak with investigators, his arrest could reveal Mafia secrets and bring closure to that gloomy era as well as shatter a symbol of resistance to the Italian state.
He was responsible for dozens of murders, including those of prominent prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino and the adolescent son of a Mafia outlaw whose body was acid-dissolved.
How did MESSINA DENARO keep herself out of trouble for so long?
Although no one knows for sure, there have long been rumors that Messina Denaro was protected by politicians and other members of the establishment. He was pursued for years by a retired prosecutor who blames unknown freemasonry groups.
Teresa Principato stated in an interview with the La Repubblica newspaper, “I have always believed a Masonic network protected him all over the world,” claiming that she had discovered evidence that he had spent time in Sicily in addition to Spain, Venezuela, and Britain.
Roberto Saviano, a crime writer, has pointed out that Antonio D’Ali, a former junior justice minister, has been found guilty of working with the Messina Denaro family. From 2001 to 2006, he was Prime Minister under Silvio Berlusconi.
After the police learned that Messina Denaro had cancer, he was eventually apprehended outside a Palermo clinic.
Experts describe the Cosa Nostra of Sicily, whose fame was boosted by movies like “The Godfather,” as a failing criminal organization that is struggling with competition in the highly lucrative drugs market.
“Messina Denaro was the final godfather and embodied all of Cosa Nostra’s secrets. “The organization will have to deal with this because it is the end of a myth,” said Anna Sergi, an authority on organized crime at Essex University in England.
The Calabrian’Ndrangheta has supplanted Cosa Nostra in the drug trade, despite the fact that it retains control over its Sicilian foundation and the ability to penetrate the wider economy.
Alfonso Sabella, a former anti-Mafia magistrate, stated that the Cosa Nostra is now only Italy’s third-largest criminal organization, trailing only the ‘Ndrangheta and the mob centered in the south-east city of Foggia.
Palermo Chief Prosecutor Maurizio de Lucia stated that Messina Denaro never became the “sole” leader of Cosa Nostra, despite the fact that he ruled over Trapani, his home province in western Sicily.
De Lucia explained that part of the reason is that, according to Mafia tradition, the so-called “boss of bosses” position is only open to mobsters from Palermo, Sicily’s capital.
Salvatore “Toto” Riina and Bernardo Provenzano were previous supremos who evaded capture for decades. Riina passed away in prison in 2017, and Provenzano did the same a year earlier.
The gangster was transported by air to a high-security prison in central Italy for the harsh “41 bis” regime, in which prisoners are held alone in small cells and are constantly under video surveillance.
In the unlikely event that Messina Denaro violates Cosa Nostra’s “omerta,” or code of silence, he may be called to testify in other Mafia trials or speak with prosecutors once he is released from prison.
