Inside barbaric life of Italy's infamous mafia boss who boasted he 'filled cemetery by himself'

Rome, Jan18: Italy's No. 1 fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro, who had a power base in western Sicily, was finally arrested in Palermo after 30 years on the run. He has has been convicted of dozens of murders, including helping to plan, with other Cosa Nostra bosses, a pair of bombings that killed top anti-Mafia prosecutors and prompted the Italian government to tighten its grip on the Sicilian crime syndicate.

Denaro was captured at the clinic where he was receiving treatment for an undisclosed medical condition, said Carabinieri Gen. Pasquale Angelosanto, who heads the police force's special operations squad.

Rumours had been rife for weeks that Denaro was ill and having chemotherapy - but it came as a surprise to the public that Italy's most wanted man was having treatment in a Palermo clinic alongside ordinary citizens. He was in the queue for tests when a police officer approached him to ask him who he was.

An associate standing with him made a run for it but he came forward and simply answered "I am Matteo Messina Denaro".

Investigators explained at their press conference that it was his need for healthcare that finally enabled them to identify him and move in. Denaro's arrest on January 16 came exactly 30 years and one day after the arrest of his mentor, the boss, Toto "the Beast" Riina. It seems significant that after three decades on the run, this was the date the state finally managed to catch up with him. It may indicate that the internal dynamics of Cosa Nostra are changing and that someone had decided to give him up because he was no longer considered "useful".

Life of Mafia boss: A rough upbringing

Denaro was the last of the old generation mafia bosses who knows all the secrets surrounding Cosa Nostra's terrorist attacks on the state of the early 1990s. He was born into a mafia family. His mafia dad, Francesco Messina Denaro, known locally as Don Ciccio was the Capo Mandamento, or town mafia head of Castelvetrano.

At the age of 14, Denaro had been taught how to use a gun and his first murder came just a few years later when he was 18, news agency Mirror reported. Unlike other mafias who stuck to their patch, Denaro was known for his violence but he also moved in the 'right' circles for progressing his career.

A blood-soaked career

The 60-year-old is the last mafia boss who associated with the Corleone generation, a group of mafiosi (led by Riina and Bernardo Provenzano) that essentially conducted out-and-out war on the Italian state in the early 1990s. The conflict caused numerous violent deaths such as of judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino and of Giuseppe Di Matteo, the 12-year-old son of a turncoat, who was kidnapped, strangled and dissolved in acid to force his father to backtrack on his collaboration with the state.

Denaro's taste for Luxury

Considered to be less conservative than traditional and older leaders, Denaro was flashier and more modern. He was able to direct the Cosa Nostra from 2007 until his arrest by infiltrating the legitimate economy through front companies. While Riina adopted a terrorist strategy towards the state, Denaro's mafia brand encapsulates the 21st century: it is based on a mixture of violence, illegal activities, social solidarity (providing jobs and justice to local communities), silence and anonymity. Solid business and political contacts are also crucial, especially the capacity to reinvest "dirty money" into the legitimate economy.

The secret life of the mafia boss

Denaro never married, but was known to have a number of lovers. Denaro wrote that he had a daughter, but had never met her. He is also believed to have a son, but little is known about him, media reports underlined.

According to a report by the BBC, Denaro once boasted he he killed so many people he 'filled cemetery by himself'. He also oversaw racketeering, illegal waste dumping, money laundering and drug trafficking for the powerful Cosa Nostra organised crime syndicate.

Denaro was investing in innovative and forward-looking businesses

In recent years, it has even been suggested that Denaro was investing in innovative and forward-looking businesses (such as wind and solar energy companies). All this is abetted by a large network of enablers and facilitators who have protected Denaro for the past 30 years.

The arrest of Denaro is a clear victory for the Italian state, but it must be asked why it took so long to find Denaro in Sicily. His protective circle has evidently been hard to break down. The police have slowly been able to remove these layers of accomplices which made him vulnerable - but it has taken time, as reportd by PTI.

The Italian police has come to rely on both traditional monitoring and more modern digital and telephone intercepts when investigating mafia networks. These eventually proved successful.