Interpol Secretary General Jurgen Stock on Wednesday described the arrest of Italian mafia leader Matteo Messina Denaro as "a great success" and thanked Italy's authorities for cooperation in tracking down one of the world's most dangerous criminals
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th January, 2023) Interpol Secretary General Jurgen Stock on Wednesday described the arrest of Italian mafia leader Matteo Messina Denaro as "a great success" and thanked Italy's authorities for cooperation in tracking down one of the world's most dangerous criminals.
Denaro, one of the most wanted mafia bosses in Italy and the leader of Sicily's notorious Cosa Nostra criminal network, had been hiding since 1993. He was arrested on Monday in a private hospital in Palermo, where he was receiving treatment, according to video footage in possession of Sputnik.
"It is definitely a great success after having been 30 years on the run. And we get insights now on how intensive investigations have been, definitely a success. We are very grateful to the Italian government," Stock said at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Stock added that the example of Denaro's arrest confirms the importance of having a global intelligence platform like Interpol that would help law enforcement officers arrest violators and confiscate the proceeds of crime.
The detention of the mafia boss occurred one day after the 30-year anniversary of the arrest of the head of the Sicilian mafia, Salvatore Riina, nicknamed "Beast." After the arrest of Riina and his successor, Bernardo Provenzano, Messina Denaro became Cosa Nostra's most influential boss. Investigators assumed that he continued to be in charge of the network, even in hiding.
Law enforcement agents had been searching for Denaro since 1993, when he disappeared without a trace while on holiday in the resort town of Forte dei Marmi in Toscana. Since then, the authorities have arrested some of his associates, but Denaro himself managed to escape justice until recently. He even, reportedly, resorted to plastic surgery to completely change his appearance.
In October 2020, Denaro was handed a second life sentence for complicity in organizing the murders of legendary Italian investigators Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, as well as eight police officers accompanying them in Sicily in 1992.
