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Messina Denaro: Italian police discover mafia boss’s hideout

Matteo Messina Denaro had been hiding in an apartment in a small town in Sicily before his arrest this week after three decades on the run, it emerged on Tuesday.

Published: 17 January 2023 15:00 CET

Italian Carabinieri in front of the Maddalena private clinic in Palermo on January 16, 2023, where Italy's top wanted mafia boss, Matteo Messina Denaro, was found.

Italian Carabinieri in front of the Maddalena private clinic in Palermo on January 16, 2023, where mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro was found. Photo by Alessandro FUCARINI / AFP.

Police officers were seen guarding the road leading to the unremarkable yellow-painted building in Campobello di Mazara, just up the road from Messina Denaro’s hometown of Castelvetrano in western Sicily.

Searches found no weapons but perfumes and luxury clothing, according to media reports. Police declined to comment to AFP.

Messina Denaro, 60, was arrested on Monday at the private La Maddalena health clinic in Palermo, where he had an appointment for treatment for colon cancer, under a false name.

A powerful boss of the Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian Mafia that inspired the hit ‘Godfather’ movies, he had not been seen in public since 1993.

But prosecutors and anti-mafia investigators said he remained an active boss for the Trapani region, a point of reference even beyond his territory, including in the resolution of disputes and top Mafia appointments.

READ ALSO: PROFILE: Ruthless Sicilian mafia boss Messina Denaro’s reign of terror

Prosecutors said he was not armed when he was arrested and appeared in good health, dressed well with luxury accessories including a watch officials valued at up to 35,000 euros.

He “enjoyed high-level protection and the investigations are now focused on that protection”, Palermo prosecutor Maurizio De Lucia told reporters on Monday.

Investigators had in years past claimed Messina Denaro was based in Sicily but travelled widely, to mainland Italy and overseas. However, prosecutors declined to give further details on Monday.

Messina Denaro was one of the mob’s most brutal bosses, whose convictions included a life sentence given in absentia in 2020 for the 1992 murder of anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone.

But De Lucia warned with his arrest “obviously the mafia is not defeated, and the biggest mistake to make would be to think that the game is over”.

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REVEALED: Where in Italy you're most likely to be a victim of crime

While Italy is among the safest countries in the world – it ranked 33rd out of 163 in the latest Global Peace Index report, right above the UK – crime is still a concern, especially in metropolitan cities and tourist hotspots.

According to the annual crime report from newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, which collated the most recent data from Italy’s Department of Public Security, Milan was the Italian city with the highest crime rate in 2023.

Overall, some 230,394 crimes were reported in the northern metropolis last year, which corresponded to 7,094 offences for every 100,000 residents.

Milan was followed by Italy’s capital, Rome, with 6,071 reported crimes for every 100,000 residents (up by nearly 600 compared to 2022) and Florence, with 6,053.

The top ten was completed by Rimini (6,002 reports for every 100,000 residents), Turin (5,685), Bologna (5,539), Prato (4,887), Imperia (4,838), Venice (4,825) and Livorno (4,743).

At the other end of the spectrum, Oristano, Sardinia, was the Italian city with the lowest crime rate in 2023 as it ‘only’ saw 1,511 offences for every 100,000 residents.

Oristano was followed by Potenza, Basilicata (1,934) and Treviso, Veneto (2,258).

Single-offence rankings

While the overall crime rate ranking provides a picture of Italy’s major crime hotspots, it doesn’t allow for any insight into the types of offences committed locally, which is why it is worth looking into single-offence rankings.

Milan, Rome and Rimini (a popular seaside resort on Emilia Romagna’s Adriatic coast) were the Italian cities with the highest theft rates in 2023, with the northern city registering nearly 3,900 reported thefts (furti) for every 100,000 residents and the capital stopping just shy of the 3,500 mark.

Milan was also Italy’s least-safe city when it came to petty theft and pickpocketing, with over 900 such offences reported for every 100,000 residents.

READ ALSO: How bad is pickpocketing in Italy’s major cities?

Florence was the Italian city with the highest robbery rate (rapine), with 136 offences for every 100,000 residents.

The Tuscan city was followed by Milan (128) and Prato (124).

Outside of big cities and popular tourist destinations, a number of smaller and, perhaps, slightly unassuming Italian cities had their own crime ‘specialisations’ in 2023.

For instance, Ragusa, Sicily, ranked first in vehicle theft, while Pisa, Tuscany, came in first in reported home burglary offences.

Trieste, Friuli Venezia Giulia, had the highest sexual assault rate (24 reports for every 100,000 residents) in the country, whereas Crotone ranked first for attempted murder.

READ ALSO: The 8 red flags to look out for to avoid rental scams in Italy

Turin came in first for cyber fraud and online scams, while Isernia, Molise, was Italy’s extortion capital.

National picture

At a national level, reported crimes were up by 3.8 percent compared to 2022, with online fraud and robbery registering 10.3- and 9.5-percent increases respectively.

Assault offences also registered a 3.1-percent year-on-year increase, while there were 341 murders in 2023 – up by 13 against 2019.

According to Marco Dugato, a researcher at the Crime Observatory of Milan’s Cattolica University, the latest increases “must be monitored, particularly for certain types of crime”.

In particular, “the rise of more impulsive, less planned, but more aggressive forms of criminal activity” such as assault and robbery “is of concern”.

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