(by Francesco Matera) the mafia boss Matteo messina denaro was arrested by the Carabinieri del Ros, after 30 years on the run. The investigation that led to the arrest of the Castelvetrano (Tp) mafia boss was coordinated by the Palermo prosecutor Maurice de Lucia and by the deputy prosecutor Paul Guido. The news, in a few hours, made the rounds of the world.
A perfect stranger, in disguise he lived in hiding in the light of the sun in Palermo, under the eyes of all with the name of Andrew Bonafede. The true Matteo messina denaro, over the years, has changed his somatic traits, through plastic surgery in Eastern countries where he has also managed to erase his fingerprints. He was known by all as Andrea and regularly exchanged messages of affection with his friends, patients of the clinic where he was being treated.
Andrea Bonafede, however, really exists because he is a relative of an ancient abettor of the boss. A genius, because there is a regular identity card as well as a health card in all public health databases. Too bad that the system of changing identity, considered ingenious and infallible, then led Messina, right, right into the hands of justice.
The mafiosi, under interception, spoke casually to each other, even though they knew they were being intercepted, about the illnesses of the mafia boss. Ingenuity or awareness of betraying, or thus handing over the boss? The investigation started from there. And by investigating data from the Ministry of Health platform that stores information on cancer patients, it was possible to draw up a list of suspected patients. A name made the investigators jump on their seats: Andrea Bonafede, he allegedly underwent liver surgery in Sardinia a year ago. But on the day he was supposed to be under the knife, the magistrates discovered that another Bonafede was at his house in Campobello di Mazara. And then the suspicion that the fugitive was using the identity of another became strong. The booking of a chemotherapy session in the name of Bonafede triggered yesterday's blitz.
"My name is Matteo Messina Denaro“, thus the massacre boss, the last bastion of the Corleonesi, arrogantly tells the carabiniere del Ros that he is about to arrest him. Thus ends the thirty-year inaction of the godfather of Castelvetrano, who ended up in handcuffs at 8.20 as he was about to begin his chemotherapy session at the Maddalena clinic in Palermo, one of the best known in the city.
It was transported in barracks from the Church, headquarters of the Legion, where in the afternoon the prosecutor of Palermo Maurice de Lucia, the adjunct Paolo Guido, the general of Ros Pasquale Angelosanto and the Palermo commander of the Special Group Archdeacon Lucius they held a press conference.
In the morning the premier had arrived at the prosecutor's office Giorgia Meloni who wanted to meet the magistrates to congratulate them. The prosecutors, with a touch of pride, underline that he was taken thanks to the same strategy that led to the arrest of the boss Bernardo Provenzano. Dry up the water around the fugitive, disjointing the network of supporters. Also excellent helpers: “a slice of the bourgeoisie helped him”, says the prosecutor de Lucia.
"He appeared to us in good health and good-looking we do not think so his conditions are incompatible with prison", explained the Palermo adjunct Paolo Guido at the press conference. “He was good looking, well dressed, wore luxury clothes which leads us to say that his economic conditions were good", he added. "Obviously it will be treated as every citizen has the right to be treated“, he concluded. At the time of her arrest she was also wearing a very special watch worth 30-35 thousand euros.
The investigations continue and searches are underway in the Trapani area. The investigators are looking for the hiding place that allegedly housed the boss in recent months and could keep the secrets contained in Totò Riina's safe taken away from the house in via Bernini, never searched.
"Matteo Messina Denaro was captured thanks to the Dalla Chiesa method, i.e. the collection of a great deal of information data from the many carabinieri departments, on the road, through telephone interceptions, databases of the State, of the administrative regions“, said the commander of the carabinieri Teo Luzi, arrived in Palermo.
The story of the last boss of the Corleonesi
Son of the old mafia boss of Castelvetrano Ciccio, historic ally of the Corleonesi of Totò Riina, Matteo Messina Denaro had been a fugitive since the summer of 1993, when in a letter written to his girlfriend at the time, Angela, after the mafia massacres in Rome, Milan and Florence, he announced the beginning of his life as a Red Pimpernel. “You will hear about me – he wrote to her, implying that he was aware that shortly thereafter his name would be associated with serious bloodshed – they'll paint me as a devil, but it's all lies". The Trapani mafia boss was sentenced to life imprisonment for dozens of murders, including the one of little Giuseppe Di Matteo, the son of the repentant strangled and dissolved in acid after almost two years of captivity, for the massacres of '92, which cost the lives of judges Falcone and Borsellino, and for the 93 attacks in Milan, Florence and Rome. Hundreds of law enforcement officers have been involved in his arrest over the years.