• Italy Between hiding places and 'pizzini': this was life in the dark of Matteo Messina Denaro

The Italian Interior Minister,

Matteo Piantedosi

, denied any type of negotiation or "background" behind the capture of the considered last boss of Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian mafia, Matteo Messina Denaro, after 30 years on the run, in an interview in the newspaper " Corriere della Sera".

"This arrest is a clear result, without backgrounds. Those who try to trivialize and minimize it, to question it, to mortify it, make a serious mistake in bad faith," Piantedosi sentenced in view of the hypothesis that it had led to the arrest of the man most wanted from Italy through a negotiation with other mafia subjects in exchange for benefits.

Piantedosi defends that the arrest of Matteo Messina Denaro "was reached only thanks to long and hard investigative work carried out by specialized units that used traditional investigative methods without embellishment or fantasies."

"The credit and the applause go to the magistrates and all the members of the police who have done a great job to bring to justice so many protectors of Messina Denaro. In recent years, the State has fought for this historic result and has won by pooling all their energies," he added.

Faced with those who attribute this historic capture to the coming to power of a right-wing government, Piantedosi asserted that "

the fight against crime has no borders or political colors

. It is a victory for all. Interpreting this success with the logic of divisions does not lead to nowhere".

Matteo Messina Denaro, the last boss of Cosa Nostra responsible for the attacks of the 90s and the murders of judges Falcone and Borsellino, is now in the maximum security prison of L'Aquila, in the central region of Los Abruzzo, subjected to 41 Bis, the harsh prison regime used for gangsters and terrorists for which they have no relationship with other prisoners or with the outside world.

The "capo" was arrested on Monday in the vicinity of the private hospital La Maddalena in Palermo, where he had been undergoing medical treatment for a year ago for a colon tumor he suffers from.

Denaro's state of health is "serious"

The state of health of Italy's most famous mobster is "serious," a doctor from the Sicilian clinic where he was arrested said Wednesday.

"His state of health is serious.

The disease has accelerated in recent months

," Vittori Gebbia, head of the oncology department at the Maddalena clinic in Palermo

, told

La Repubblica newspaper.

Matteo Messina Denaro underwent surgery in 2020 and in 2022 for colon cancer. "I would not say that he is a healthy patient," added Mr. Gebbia, when asked about the statements of prosecutor Paolo Guido, who had declared during the arrest that he had found a man "in good health". Doctor Gebbia also clarified that the carabinieri who arrested Messina Denaro were attentive to his state of health. "The carabinieri asked me if delaying a few days the chemotherapy cycle that he should have had any consequences and I signed the authorization because such a slight delay will not affect his state of health," he said.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more