After spending 30 years on the run evading authorities, this notorious mob boss has died. Known by many as “the last Godfather” of the Italian mafia, Matteo Messina Denaro, was able to remain a free man for decades before his capture in January 2023.
On Monday, September 25, Reuters reported that Denaro had succumbed to colon cancer after a battle with the disease. After slipping into a coma on Friday, he passed away at 61-years-old after being transferred from high security lockup to a hospital in Central Italy.
According to Reuters, Denaro ran the Western Sicilian clan of the Cosa Nostra mob.
This death marks a huge victory for law enforcement in Italy as their search for one of the most notorious criminals of all time has come to an end.
#UPDATE Sicilian Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, captured in January after three decades on the run, died on Monday in hospital in central Italy ➡️ https://t.co/Yq7lfGU4Qi pic.twitter.com/HxTBHGS2Z8
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) September 25, 2023
In 2020, while still at large, Messina Denaro was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the 1992 killings of two anti-Mafia prosecutors. He also received additional convictions related to bombings, torture, racketeering, illegal waste dumping, drug trafficking and money laundering.
It has been alleged that he once said he had murdered enough people to fill an entire graveyard.
Authorities believe that during his time on the run between 1990 and 2022, Messina Denaro remained primarily in Sicily without traveling far or wide—communicating only via ‘pizzini’ (small paper notes with occasionally encoded messages).
During much of 2022 he stayed close by his mother’s home in Campobello di Mazara as his health continued to deteriorate further.
This year saw other arrests related to the mafia including a former hitman living a new life as a French pizza chef along with an alleged white collar mafioso who was caught cheering an Italian soccer team while vacationing Greece.
This is just some of Italy’s accomplishments against organized crime this year alone which also includes their fight against both domestic and international drug traffickers.
