Italian police seize R$1.1 billion in investigation linked to the mafia

Who was Messina Denaro, 'the last powerful boss' of the Italian mafia
The Italian financial police reported this Thursday that they seized assets and companies valued at more than 200 million euros, the equivalent of more than R$1.1 billion, in an investigation into the laundering of money from drug trafficking linked to the late mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro.
The operation ended a complex investigation that tracked a vast set of assets generated by the reinvestment of profits from drug trafficking accumulated since the 1980s in several European and non-European countries.
"We believe we have identified a significant portion of the investments made by the mafia, including abroad," said Palermo's chief prosecutor, Maurizio de Lucia.
Messina Denaro was arrested in 2023 after spending 30 years on the run for his role in the Sicilian Cosa Nostra mafia's war against the state in the 1980s and 1990, which included the assassination of Attorney General Giovanni Falcone.
Nicknamed "U Siccu" (the skinny one), Messina Denaro died of cancer just months after his arrest, leaving prosecutors the task of tracking down the profits of his criminal empire and those who helped him escape justice.
Italian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro inside a police car after being arrested in Sicily on January 16, | Cosa Nostra, the largest criminal organization in Europe and one of the largest in the world, serving as inspiration for the story of the film "The Godfather".
According to investigations, Denaro, aged 61, used to torture mafia prisoners and boasted of "filling up an entire cemetery". In one case, he had the son of a Cosa Nostra member killed with acid who repented and left the group.
Although she officially declared that she worked in the field, Messina Denaro joined Cosa Nostra on behalf of her father, who was also an important mafia boss in Sicily.
He took over as leader of the group after replacing Salvator Riina, also known as Totò Riina, who was arrested exactly 30 years ago and died in a chair in 2017. At the time, the police also started looking for Denaro, who went underground.
In this photo taken from a video released by the Italian Carabinieri from 2023, mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro arrives for treatment at a private clinic in Palermo, Sicily, Italy, Monday, January 16, 2023, where he was arrested after 30 years on the run.
Carabinieri via AP
The mobster was able to hide for so long thanks to a strong Cosa Nostra support network which includes confidentiality contracts with other mobsters and their relatives in a kind of "code of silence".
It was this network, according to the Italian Prosecutor's Office, that guaranteed Denaro different hiding places, in addition to providing him with food, clean clothes and communication.
Messina Denaro had a power base in the port city of Trapani in western Sicily.
Attacks
Denaro is accused of being directly or indirectly responsible for a series of murders throughout the 1990s. He was sentenced to life in prison for his role in bomb attacks in Florence, Rome and Milan, which killed ten people.
The mobster is also named by the Italian Public Prosecutor's Office as the author of two bomb attacks in Sicily in 1992. In the acts, the main prosecutors investigating the mafia at the time, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, were killed.
He is also accused of having helped organize the kidnapping of Giuseppe di Matteo, aged 12, to prevent the boy's father from testifying against the mafia.

The boy was in the hands of the mafia for two years and was later murdered.
Messina Denaro was arrested last August in a private clinic in Palermo, in the capital of Sicily, while undergoing treatment to improve his cancer.
According to medical records leaked to the Italian media, he underwent surgery for colon cancer in 2020 and 2022 under a false name.
His body is expected to be returned to Sicily in the coming days for a private funeral, a government official told the Reuters news agency.
Matto Messina Denaro is arrested in Sicily after 30 years on the run
Carabinieri Military Police/via Reuters

Source: G1

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