Italy’s Carabinieri police have arrested Matteo Messina Denaro, the country’s most wanted mafia boss, local media reported on Monday.

Messina Denaro, 60, is alleged to be a boss of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra mafia and has been on the run since 1993.

He was detained at a private clinic in Palermo, where he was undergoing treatment for an unspecified illness, the Carabinieri’s commander Pasquale Angelosanto told reporters.

Messina Denaro has been sentenced in absentia to a life term for his role in the 1992 murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.

He also faces a life sentence for his role in bomb attacks in Florence, Rome and Milan, which killed 10 people the following year.

Police said in September 2022 that he was still able to issue commands relating to the way the mafia was run in the area around the western Sicilian city of Trapani, his regional stronghold, despite his long disappearance.

Source: Reuters