Italy’s most wanted mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro arrested after 30 years on the run

Italy’s most wanted gangster, Sicilian Matteo Messina Denaro, has been arrested, according to Prime Minister Matteo Salvini.

Denaro, who had been on the run for 30 years, was arrested in Palermo, Sicily. He is considered the successor of the great historical leaders of Cosa Nostra, such as Toto Riina and Bernardo Provenzano, who died in prison in 2016 and 2017.

“After 30 years on the run, the super-boss Matteo Messina Denaro has been arrested. It is with great emotion that I thank the women and men of the State who have never given up, confirming the rule according to which sooner or later even the greatest criminals of the run are arrested,” Salvini wrote.

“It’s a great day for Italy and serves as a warning to the mafia: the institutions and our heroes in uniform never give up,” he added.

The leader of Italy’s Carbinieri said Denaro was arrested at a medical facility where he received treatment.

Denaro tops Italy’s “most wanted criminals” list.

Born in 1962, the former Cosa Nostra shooter was born in 1962 in Trapani, Sicily. However, the only known photograph of him is from the 1990s.

Since the 2000s, the Italian police have multiplied the arrests and seizures of property of those around him, a strategy of isolation that took nearly 20 years to bear fruit, given his vast support network.