Italian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, a first-degree wanted man, is detained after being arrested in Palermo, Italy, on March 16 (local time). yunhap news
Italy’s No. 1 Mafia boss has been arrested after 30 years on the run.
According to foreign media such as the New York Times on the 16th (local time), Mafia boss Mateo Messina Denaro (60), who was sentenced to life imprisonment for alleged involvement in the murder of a prosecutor who investigated the mafia, was arrested on the island of Sicily in southern Italy. .
Messina Denaro was sentenced to life imprisonment for his involvement in the 1992 murder of two prosecutors investigating the mafia. She has been on the run for 30 years since 1993.
Dubbed ‘The Last Godfather’, he is known to have led the organization by committing terrible crimes while on the run as the leader of the actual Sicilian criminal group ‘Cosa Nostra’ depicted in the movie ‘The Godfather’.
The arrest of Messina Denaro also brings new light to the two prosecutors who were killed while investigating the mafia.
The main characters are Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino from Palermo on the island of Sicily, the birthplace of the Mafia.
These two, friends since childhood, became prosecutors side by side, and decided to root out the mafia, which no one had tried to do before.
As the indictment titled ‘Abate Giovanni and 706 others’ shows, their investigation was persistent and extensive.
With this, on February 10, 1986, the trial of the century to condemn the Mafia began in the Palermo District Court. This trial was called the ‘Maxiprocesso’, which means a long trial for numerous defendants.
Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro (right) being escorted. yunhap news
The trial ended on 30 January 1992 in the Italian Supreme Court, which resulted in the conviction of 476 of the 707 mafia bosses and members charged.
After the trial, the mafia revealed its true nature. When there is an additional investigation movement, he retaliates with an assassination. On May 23, 1992, Prosecutor Falcone was killed when a bomb exploded in his car.
In response, Prosecutor Borsellino did not blink and spurred the investigation even more. However, on July 19 of the same year, less than two months after Falcone’s tragic death, Prosecutor Borsellino was also killed by a bomb attack along with his bodyguards.
The mafia may have expected that the investigation would subside and public opinion would wither if only the investigation prosecutor was removed, but the reality turned out to be the exact opposite.
Sicilian authorities and citizens decided not to forget the names of the two prosecutors who lost their lives while investigating the mafia. Palermo International Airport was renamed Falcone-Borsellino International Airport.
No matter how many years pass, people who come and go by plane cannot help but recall the names of the two prosecutors, and they automatically recall why they were sacrificed.
Italian Prime Minister Meloni said of the arrest of the mafia leader, “This is a great victory for the country and it shows an unyielding attitude towards the mafia.”
Italian President Sergio Mattarella also called and encouraged the speculum. President Mattarella’s older brother was reportedly murdered by the mafia in 1980 while he was governor of Sicily.
