In this anonymous neighborhood, the street is watched day and night by the carabinieri. The lair of Matteo Denaro, one of the leaders of Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian mafia, was actually a simple apartment.
Inside, the investigators found nothing important except the poster of the film “The Godfather”, like a snub to the police. Wanted around the world, Matteo Messina Denaro actually lived just seven kilometers from his hometown, Castelvetrano.
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Matteo Messina Denaro, Italy’s Most Wanted Mafioso, Has Been Arrested
For several months, the rumor ran but those who really met Matteo Denaro chose to keep quiet. The mayor, however, refuses to speak of omerta. “The mafia govern on fear, they are a small number, but with fear, they condition the mass”, underlines Enzo Alfano Wednesday in the 7:30 p.m.
At least 30,000 euros per month
The boss’ little cousin, Giuseppe Cimarosa, a horse breeder, is not afraid. However his father, condemned for mafia, was the first repentant of justice to speak regarding Matteo Messina Denaro. The family paid dearly for it. “His collaboration with justice was fundamental to breaking the omerta around the Messina Denaro system. But since then, a large part of the city has rejected us and sees us as plague victims”, confides the one who has become an anti-mafia activist .
Mafiosi rule on fear, they are a small number of us but with fear they condition the mass
When he watches the images of his cousin’s arrest, with his luxury clothes and his 36,000 euro watch, he is flabbergasted. “Certainly he must have needed at least 30,000 euros a month to lead this kind of life, but he did not need all the millions he had accumulated”.
For 30 years, Sicilian investigators have followed the money trail. Gradually, they put very lucrative businesses into receivership. Matteo Denaro had thus invested in wind energy, in a local shopping center, in agriculture and even in tourism. Activities whose revenues are estimated at more than four billion euros.
Mafia in col blanc
“He really managed to penetrate the sick parts of the local economy”, testifies Salvatore Ingiuì, referent of Libera, Antimafia of Trapani. With his puppets, he explains in schools the dangers of this business mafia, in white collar , who no longer kills but who has plagued society.
“The Mafia is in politics (…) it is in Freemasonry (…) and they had every interest in keeping Matteo Messina Denaro well hidden and protected”, he continues. The man is the last to know the secrets of Cosa Nostra, especially on the many attacks of the 1990s.
Murdered prison guard
In 1995, Liliana Riccobene’s husband was a guard at the Palermo prison where Toto Riina was. He was assassinated with a shotgun on the orders of Messina Denaro. “My husband was killed on Christmas Eve, as a gift for the mafia prisoners. I would like to know why they decided to kill him?”, she testifies.
The magistrates of Palermo hope to find the answers for the families of the victims. But in prison the mobster refuses to collaborate.
TV Subject: Valerie Dupont
Web texts: Hélène Krähenbühl
