Sicilian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro is dead

The powerful godfather of the Sicilian mafia Matteo Messina Denaro, captured in January after 30 years on the run, died at the age of 61, said Monday September 25 the mayor of L’Aquila, where he was hospitalized. The elected official of this town in Abruzzo, east of Rome, confirmed the death of the criminal “following a worsening of his illness”, in a statement to the Italian news agency Ansa which announced the news earlier.

Matteo Messina Denaro, who was one of the leaders of Cosa Nostra, suffered from colon cancer for which he sought treatment while on the run. It was while going to a clinic in Palermo that the last great living Sicilian “capo”, wanted since 1993, was arrested on January 16, 2023.

Sentenced to life for the assassination of judges Falcone and Borsellino

This merciless killer, who recently denied being a member of Cosa Nostra, was sentenced on appeal in July to life imprisonment for his role in the 1992 assassination of judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. There Italian criminal court had thus confirmed the verdict pronounced in absentia in October 2020, when he was still on the run.

After his arrest, Matteo Messina Denaro was transferred to a high-security prison in L’Aquila, where he continued to receive medical treatment. This weekend, media announced that he had fallen into a “irreversible coma”. Doctors stopped feeding him and he asked not to be resuscitated, according to the press.