The Cross Fugitive

The chapter "Goat Nostra", who was on the run for 30 years, was caught right in the center of Sicily. Women, luxury and comics - what did the largest mafiosi Matteo Messina Denaro lived?

In Italy, on January 16, the Boss of the mafia and the chapter of the Kosa Nostra Matteo Messin Denaro were detained. He was hiding from justice for 30 years. The 60-year-old leader of the Sicilian criminal group was caught in the La Maddalen private clinic in the center of Palermo, where he underwent a course of chemotherapy for a year. Of course, according to false documents.

The clinic in the eyes of dozens of patients was surrounded by the police. A policeman approached the “godfather” and asked his name. “My name is Matteo Messina Denaro,” he admitted. And no resistance during detention.

At that moment, he was unarmed and dressed as a typical patient of the clinic. Although it had a clock worth at least 30 thousand euros, which, in general, is characteristic of Denaro, always driving behind a luxurious life.

Since 1993, Matteo has been on the list of the ten most wanted fugitives in the world. And then, finally, he was caught. Now he looks calm and serene and sits in the Le Kostarel prison in L'Akuil, in the cell three by four meters. He arrived in prison without money, and the administration appointed him a allowance of 200 euros for any minor expenses. Denaro himself notes that he is politely treated, and thanks for it. In prison, his chemotherapy course will continue.

Luxury, women and video games. Life Matteo Messina Denaro

Matteo was born on April 26, 1962 in the family of Sicilian mafiosi Francesco Messina Denaro, known as Don Chichco. Francesco was Kapo Mandamento (the head of the territory controlled by the mafia - approx. Ed.) In the Italian commune of Castelvetrano in Sicily. Francesco began his career Mafioso in the 1940-1950s as an armed guard of the D'Ali family-rich landowners with large political and economic ties and one of the founders of Sikula Bank.

In particular, the d'Ali family in the 1990s was closely connected with Putin’s friend Silvio Berlusconi: Antonio d'Ali in 1996 became a senator from his party “Forward, Italy”. In April 2001, Antonio became Deputy Minister of the Italian Ministry of Internal Affairs, who is engaged in the fight against organized crime. The cousin of Antonio, Dzhakomo d'Ali, served as an adviser to the Italian commercial bank in Milan, who then acquired the Sikula bank. In this bank, the brother of Matteo Salvatore Messina Denaro worked in this bank.

So Matteo from the very beginning of his career had connections in the highest circles of Italian political and economic life.

Everyone knew Matteo as an impulsive and rather arrogant person. Unlike the other leaders of the “Goat of Nostra”, who preferred a conservative way of life, he saw a womanizer, loved luxury and did not hesitate to show it. He drove Porsche, wore luxurious costumes from Armani and Versace, as well as Ra Bin and Rolex gold watch. His hobby is video games and comics. Matteo took his nickname - Dyabolic - in honor of the famous antihero from Italian comics. It tells about the villain in a mask who without hesitation kills anyone who rises in his way.

Matteo was nicknamed Casanova and great seducer. Over the years spent on the run, he had several lovers, one way or another associated with his criminal activity, and each suffered for it in its own way. In particular, he was married to Maria Mesi, who was arrested in 2000 due to communication with Matteo. Then the police found love letters with which she exchanged with the head of the “Goat of Nostra”. As a result, she was sentenced to three years in prison for aiding and incitement.

From his other lover - Franca Alanya - he had an illegitimate daughter of Lorenz. By the time of her birth, Matteo had to hide from the police, and his lover and her daughter were forced to live 18 years in fact in imprisonment. Only when the Lorenz almost reached the age of majority, she and her mother asked permission to leave the rest of the family, and she was released.

Another important woman in Matteo’s life is his younger sister Anna Patricia Messina Denaro, a key figure in a mafia family. Being the right hand of her brother, she was the only one who had close relations with Matteo, and one of the very few who could meet him physically.

“I pay for the last name that I wear, but which I am proud,” she said in 2013 immediately after the arrest. In 2018, the court sentenced her to 14 years and six months in prison for communication with the mafia. “It was established that the defendant transferred very important messages to prison and from prison, acting as an intermediary between other prisoners of the mafia and her fugitive brother,” the court said then.

In 1998, after the death of his father Francesco, who suffered a heart attack, Messina Denaro became the head of the Castelvetrano district, as well as the representative of the province of Tramani in the “Goat of Nostra”.

Loud crimes of the "godfather" Matteo

Father Matteo Francesco taught his son to use weapons when it was only 14 years old. Already at the age of 18, Matteo committed the first murder.

The Cosa Nostra Code says: not to kill women and children. A well -known rule, often ignored by the mafia. Including Matteo Denaro.

In 1992, the future leader of the Koza Nostra participated in the murder of Vincenzo Milazzo, a competitor of his father and head of the Alcamo gang. A few days after that, Matteo strangled the companion of Milatsso Antonello Bonomo. She was in the third month of pregnancy.

Another of Denaro's most brutal incidents is the murder of a 12-year-old Sicilian Giuseppe Di Matteo. In 1993, the child was abducted by a group of criminals. They wanted to force the father of the boy Santino, the former mafiosi, who eventually began to cooperate with the Italian authorities - to be silent and not to take the secrets of the Koza Nostra. The child was held captive for 799 days. In 1996, he was strangled, and the body was dissolved in acid.

Another murder is May 23, 1992. Five tons of TNTS woven a armored car from the face of the earth, moving along the highway to Palermo. The car was a 53-year-old Italian lawyer, official Giovanni Falcone, who became a symbol of the struggle against the mafia. Together with him was his wife, who also worked as an investigator, and three bodyguards. No one survived. At the scene of the explosion, a funnel formed four meters deep.

57 days later, July 19. Colleague and friend Falcone - Magistrate Paolo Borsellino, who continued his business, goes to visit his mother to the Palermo center. Again, an explosion, as a result of which another Italian judge, who investigated the case against the mafia, dies.

The order to remove the most prominent fighters with criminal Sicilian groups was given by the then “godfather” of the world of the world of mafia, Salvatore Toto Riin. And the police considers Messin Denaro to be the direct executor of the murders of these two Italian judges.

In total, according to modest estimates, Matteo was involved in the murder of at least 50 people.

Mafia in Italy: Historical Help

Today, the “mafia” is called any criminal group based on a national basis. The mafia still plays a huge role in Italy. It can be called the largest sphere of business: mafiosi are involved, in particular, in drug trafficking, “roofing” of small enterprises and prostitution.

The clan is the base cell of the mafia, usually consisting of blood relatives. This is a closed organizational structure, but it can enter into an alliance with a stronger and more influential clan. Each clan usually specializes in a certain area in a certain territory. The entire set of clans is usually called the mafia.

The Sicilian mafia is customary to call a “goat of the nostra”, which means “our business”. This is one of the most influential groups in Italy, the birthplace of the Italian mafia.

The mafia was formed during the lawlessness and weakness of state structures in Sicily during the reign of the Bourbons dynasty (mid -19th century). Before the unification of Italy in 1860, Sicily was under foreign dominance for almost 200 years. The exploitation and repression that the Sicilians were subjected to, led to the fact that scattered groups of bandits that robbed rich visitors began to arise on the island.

The Nazis in Italy, after coming to power in 1922, declared a war of the Sicilian mafia. She was practically neutralized, many of her members fled from the country. However, at the first opportunity, the mafia took revenge on Benito Mussolini-when in July 1943 the Anglo-American troops landed on the island, the mafia began to cooperate and assist with them.

The Italian authorities have always tried to fight the mafia. In particular, in Sicily, since the 1960-1970s, the leaders of the organization and police raids have been actively held. But the mafia remains part of the Italian life.

Matteo and terrorist attacks in Italy 1993

In January 1993, the authorities of Italy arrested the then chapter “Goat Nostra” Toto Riin, and also adopted a number of laws against mafia clans. As a result, Riin was sentenced to 13 life imprisonment. He was charged with the organization of more than 100 murders, including reprisals against judges Falcone and Borsellino.

As a revenge, the mafia in the same year committed five terrorist attacks in Rome, Milan and Florence. The goal is to force the state to abandon plans to arrest large mafiosi and break through to power themselves.

As a result of the explosions, 10 people died, about a hundred were seriously injured. The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, two large churches in Rome and the art gallery in Milan were also damaged. In connection with the attacks, eight people were arrested, each of which either represented criminal mafia clans or was associated with them.

In the same year, Matteo Messiah Denaro was put on the wanted list, but, not being able to find it, in 2002 was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment. Nevertheless, Matteo remained at large and held leadership positions in the mafia.

Italian investigators three times checked the chapter “Forward, Italy” Berlusconi for involvement in the attacks. The Putin's Friend himself denied any connection with them. Nevertheless, the explosions gave rise to mass public discontent, and as a result, the head of the Italian police was forced to resign, and in the 1994 elections Berlusconi won.

Matteo became the “godfather” immediately after the arrest in 2007 of the previous boss “Koza Nostra” Salvatore Lo Piccolo. He managed to attend the head of the mafia group after the arrest of his predecessor Bernardo Priventsano, who for more than 40 years was successfully hiding from justice. As a result, Privantsano received a life sentence and died in prison in 2016 at the age of 83.

After the high-profile terrorist attacks and attempts in the 1990s and early 2000s, the Kose of Nostra became not so noticeable. In many ways-due to the policy of the Italian authorities, who began to even more actively hunt for large mafiosi.

In June 2009, the Italian police conducted an operation called Golem, as a result of which thirteen people were arrested, including mafiosi and entrepreneurs who were suspected of extortion and drug trafficking. A year later, the police caught another 19 close -close Dyabolic, accused of extortion against local businessmen and politicians. Among the arrested was also the brother of Matteo Salvatore and his cousins ​​Giovanni and Matteo Filardo.

But Matteo himself could not catch until January 2023.

The highest bosses of the Italian “Goat of Nostra” were arrested in the heart of Sicily. For the Italian police and Italy as a whole, this is not surprising - Mafiosi, thanks to the connections, the assistance of comrades and family members, as well as the Code of Silence, known as the Omert, can move from shelter to shelter for decades, and no one will find them until a certain point.

Messina Denaro, in addition to staying in shelters in Sicily, also traveled abroad. In particular, in the French port city of Marseille, where, according to investigators, he was undergoing an operation. In 1994 and 1996, he incognito laid for an operation in one of the Barcelona clinics for eye surgery. And in 2006, the Italian media reported that Denaro had kidney problems and that he could have passed dialysis procedures in Italy.

The real victory of the state over the mafia will come when it becomes clear how exactly Denaro could hide from justice for 30 years, the Italian media note. Where did he hide? What government agencies turned a blind eye to this? Who was in conspiracy? Was there a conspiracy directly state with the mafia?

Today in each area of ​​Palermo there are families who independently control their site and claim to be leadership. Therefore, in order to find out what the future of the “goat of the nostra” will be and who will become the new boss of the mafia in Sicily, you will have to wait. Of course, the most bloodthirsty mafia generation is already behind. But the mafia itself did not die.