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Matteo Messina's arrest 'earthquake' for mafia, but Cosa Nostra still strong, according to Italian prosecutors

2023-01-18 23:03:05Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Matteo Messina's arrest 'earthquake' for mafia, but Cosa Nostra
Matteo Messina shortly before his arrest

The timeline of the murders Matteo Messina Denaro has committed is enough to fill a cemetery, making him one of the top bosses of the Sicilian mafia.

After evading capture for 30 years while still running much of the mafia's business, he was arrested on Monday at a clinic in Palermo, where he was undergoing chemotherapy. On Tuesday he was taken to a high-security prison, but his capture is not expected to bring about the demise of Cosa Nostra, thanks to the criminal group's more than a century of roots and rules.

"What will happen in detail, we cannot know", said the General Prosecutor of Palermo, Lia Sava, for the state radio, regarding the future of the mafia.

"But one thing is certain. Cosa Nostra is made up of rules. It has relied on these rules for 150 years, so it will certainly set them in motion to repair the damage and thus create the new leadership structure needed after the arrest," said Mr. Sava.

Although Messina Denaro had great influence in the mafia, for decades Cosa Nostra lacked a "supreme leader", investigators said.

The practically mythical figure of a "boss of bosses" came to an end in 1993, with the arrest in Palermo of Salvatore "Toto" Riina, who had been one of Italy's most wanted men for 23 years.

According to court testimony that led to his conviction for multiple murders, including the 1992 bombings that killed two of Italy's top anti-mafia prosecutors, Toto Riina headed what was known as the Cosa Nostra "commission" s, who ran illegal businesses and had devised a strategy of bloody revenge against the state in response to the blow to the criminal group.

"After Riina there has never been an absolute boss," said Rome's chief prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi, who took over last year after serving as Palermo's chief prosecutor, helping to coordinate the capture of Messina Denaro.

Even if the "boss of bosses" figure persists, Messina Denaro would not have qualified because he came from Castelvetrano, the western tip of Sicily, and not from Palermo or its surrounding countryside, Mr. Lo Voi noted, citing the rules of Cosa Nostra.

However, Messina Denaro, the son of a crime boss, "was one of the most important bosses and had links to other criminal organizations in Italy and abroad," Mr. Lo Voi told the Associated Press.

"That's why his arrest certainly represents an earthquake at this moment for Cosa Nostra," said Mr. Lo Voi.

What raised Messina Denaro's profile within the criminal group was his strong record as a clan boss with influence over much of western Sicily, Mr Lo Voi said.

Messina Denaro was flown by military plane on Tuesday to the high-security prison in L'Aquila, where strict rules for top crime bosses who do not cooperate with authorities include severely limited visitor privileges.

Italian anti-mafia national prosecutor Giovanni Melillo said Messina Denaro's eventual jailing will not change the strategy Cosa Nostra has pursued for more than a decade.

This strategy is "no longer a strategy of violence" against the state, Mr. Melillo said on state television on Monday evening, referring to the 1992 bombings that killed Palermo prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, as well as the bombings. of 1993 against the churches of Rome, part of the mafia's attempt to force the state to give up its crackdown on Cosa Nostra.

In contrast, Cosa Nostra is keeping a low profile, choosing to infiltrate Italy's social and economic structures, Mr. Melillo said.


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