Matteo Messina Denaro, a Cosa Nostra Mafia boss in Sicily and Italy’s most wanted man, was apprehended by police while receiving treatment in a private health clinic in Palermo, prosecutor Maurizio de Lucia said Monday, January 16 2023.
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“It is a victory for all the police forces that have worked together over these long years to bring the dangerous fugitive to justice,” Italy’s chief of Police, Lamberto Giannini, said in a statement congratulating the Carabinieri – Italy’s military police – and the Palermo Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni tweeted: “A great victory for the state, which demonstrates that it does not give up in the face of the Mafia.”
Defense Minister Guido Crosetto called the arrest “a sign of a state that wins against Mafia.” Speaking outside the prosecutor’s office, Meloni said that while Italy had not yet won the “war” against the Mafia, this was a “battle that was fundamental to win.”
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Matteo Messina Denaro had been on the run since 1993 and was considered one of Europe’s most wanted men by Europol, according to de Lucia.
Messina Denaro was apprehended around 10 a.m. local time following an early morning raid by more than 100 specialised agents with the anti-Mafia Carabinieri.
The Maddalena clinic where he was arrested is a private clinic that specialises in plastic surgery and other elective procedures. It is unknown what treatment Messina Denaro received.
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