A Mafia boss believed to be responsible for dozens of murders has finally been arrested after 30 years on the run. The Sicilian Cosa Nostra Mafia's don Matteo Messina Denaro was arrested by the Italian carabinieri in Ros today after spending three decades as a fugitive.
Denaro, who has been nicknamed 'Diabolik', was caught inside the Maddalena private clinic in Palermo as he was getting ready to 'undergo therapy' according to the commander of the Ros Carabinieri. The fugitive, who was the son of an old mafia boss, has been on the run since 1993 and was considered by the Italian law enforcement to be their number one fugitive since then, the Mirror reports.
Denaro confessed in a letter to his girlfriend at the time that his name might come to be associated with 'serious bloodshed'. The note was penned after a series of massacres in Rome, Milan and Florence in 1992 which killed dozens of people, according to ANSA.
The correspondence read: "You will hear about me - he wrote them, implying that he was aware that shortly thereafter his name would be associated with serious bloodshed - they will paint me as a devil, but they are all falsehoods".
During his absence, he was sentenced to life in prison. Among the murdered was Giuseppe Di Matteo was a rival mobster who was strangled and dissolved in acid. He was also accused of being responsible for the massacres of 1992 and for attacks across Milan, Florence and Rome in 1993.
Denaro was the last of the original Mafia bosses still wanted by the Carabinieri. According to the ANSA, hundreds of officers have been involved in tracking him down over the years and in today's arrest.
The exceptional length of time he spent at large made him one of the longest-running fugitives ever, beating the record of his faithful ally Totò Riina who managed to avoid handcuffs for 23 years. His friend, Bernando Provenzano managed to escape prison for 38 years.
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