Mafia bosses will go into hiding before ever turning themselves over to the police. Italy’s most wanted Mafia boss was on the run for 30 years before a simple mistake gave up his location.
Matteo Messina Denaro was visiting the Maddalena private clinic in Palermo, Sicily, for cancer checks when he was arrested by police. Officials said that the 60-year-old was still considered to be the top Sicilian Costra Nostra figure, running his Trapani-based operation even while in hiding for the last three decades.
Messina Denaro had been convicted of dozens of murders in absentia and faces multiple life sentences, including for two 1992 Sicily bombings that killed anti-Mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino and for strangling a 12-year-old boy and dissolving his body in acid.
Shortly after his arrest, the Mafia boss, who had not been seen in public for three decades, was spotted sitting in a police van sporting his signature tinted glasses, a white skull cap, and a brown leather jacket. He was taken to a secret location by the authorities immediately after the arrest.
Source: https://nypost.com/2023/01/16/cosa-nostra-boss-matteo-messina-denaro-arrested-after-30-years-on-the-run/