ROME: Italian police escorted the body of Sicilian Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro back to his hometown Tuesday, media reports said, where he is expected to be buried quickly and with little ceremony.
Messina Denaro, captured in January after three decades on the run, died on Monday in hospital in central Italy, taking to the grave the secrets of his brutal reign.
His coffin was driven in a hearse out of the hospital in L’Aquila and is expected to arrive in his hometown of Castelvetrano in Sicily in the early hours of Wednesday, according to the ANSA news agency.
Police normally ban funerals for mafia bosses, and only a few family members — including two sisters and a brother — are expected to be present at his burial in the town’s cemetery, the agency said.
Messina Denaro was one of the most ruthless bosses in Cosa Nostra, the real-life Sicilian crime syndicate depicted in the “Godfather” movies.
The 61-year-old was convicted of involvement in the murder of anti-Mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in 1992 and in deadly bombings in Rome, Florence and Milan in 1993.
One of his six life sentences was for the kidnapping and murder of the 12-year-old son of a witness in the Falcone case.
Messina Denaro disappeared in the summer of 1993 and spent the next 30 years on the run as the Italian state cracked down on the Sicilian mob.
But he remained at the top of Italy’s most-wanted list and increasingly became a figure of legend.
It was his decision to seek treatment for colon cancer that led to his arrest on January 16, 2023, when he visited a health clinic in Palermo.
Mafia boss Messina Denaro’s body returns to Sicily: report
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Mafia boss Messina Denaro’s body returns to Sicily: report
- Messina Denaro, captured in January after three decades on the run, died on Monday in hospital in central Italy
- He was one of the most ruthless bosses in Cosa Nostra, the real-life Sicilian crime syndicate depicted in the “Godfather” movies
