Matteo Messina Denaro, a Sicilian mafia boss was born in Castelvetrano, Sicily, in the province of Trapani to Lorenza Messina Denaro and Francesco Messina Denaro.
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His father, Francesco Messina Denaro, also known as Don Ciccio, was the capo mandamento of Castelvetrano and the head of the Trapani region’s Mafia Commission.
His father began as a campiere (armed guard) for the D’Al family, wealthy landowners who were among Banco Sicula’s founders. He was appointed Fattore (estate overseer) of the D’Al land holdings.
Matteo Messina Denaro became capo mandamento of the area including Castelvetrano and the neighbouring cities after his father died naturally in November 1998, while Vincenzo Virga ruled in Trapani and its surroundings.
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Messina Denaro took over the leadership of the Mafia in Trapani after Virga was arrested in 2001. He is said to command 900 men and to have reorganised Trapani’s 20 Mafia families into a single mandamento separate from the rest of Cosa Nostra.
The Trapani Mafia is considered the zoccolo Duro (solid pedestal) of Cosa Nostra and the most powerful except for the families in Palermo.
Messina Denaro became a fugitive on the most wanted list in 1993; in 2010, Forbes named him one of the world’s ten most wanted and powerful criminals.
After 30 years on the run, he was apprehended on January 16, 2023, in a private clinic in Palermo, Sicily’s capital.
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