Cosa Nostra boss arrested by Italy police after 30 years on the run

His arrest marks a landmark second within the decades-long battle by authorities towards organized crime. Video on social media confirmed individuals cheering within the streets of Palermo, honking horns in celebration and clapping for the Carabinieri police.

“A terrific victory for the state,” Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni stated in an announcement. She thanked the nationwide anti-mafia unit in addition to prosecutors in Palermo for his or her work.

With a reported penchant for quick automobiles, Rolexes and ladies, Denaro had constructed a repute because the “boss of bosses.” However he had additionally change into near-mythic for dodging authorities. Some informants reportedly spoke of facial surgical procedures. There have been so few images of him that Italian authorities needed to depend on computer-generated pictures that approximated what he may appear like as an older man.

The Carabinieri commander, Pasquale Angelosanto, advised reporters that Denaro had been looking for to endure remedy for an unspecified sickness at a personal clinic in Palermo.

The proprietor and director of that clinic, Stefania Filosto, advised the Corriere della Sera that Denaro had been utilizing a faux identify — “Bonafede” — and that “no person may have imagined” the affected person was one of many world’s most wished figures. Filosto stated that Denaro had been trying to do chemotherapy.

He had been lining up for a coronavirus check when “all of a sudden armed males appeared,” Filosto advised the paper.

Italian authorities stated Denaro had a hand in two of probably the most infamous crimes within the nation’s trendy historical past: the bomb murders of anti-Mafia magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellini, each of which occurred in Sicily in 1992.