Italy Arrests Sicilian Mafia Boss Matteo Messina Denaro

A screengrab taken from a video shows Matteo Messina Denaro the country's most wanted mafia boss after he was arrested in this handout photo obtained by Reuters on January 16, 2023. Carabinieri/Handout via REUTERS
A screengrab taken from a video shows Matteo Messina Denaro the country's most wanted mafia boss after he was arrested in this handout photo obtained by Reuters on January 16, 2023. Carabinieri/Handout via REUTERS
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Italy Arrests Sicilian Mafia Boss Matteo Messina Denaro

A screengrab taken from a video shows Matteo Messina Denaro the country's most wanted mafia boss after he was arrested in this handout photo obtained by Reuters on January 16, 2023. Carabinieri/Handout via REUTERS
A screengrab taken from a video shows Matteo Messina Denaro the country's most wanted mafia boss after he was arrested in this handout photo obtained by Reuters on January 16, 2023. Carabinieri/Handout via REUTERS

Italy’s No. 1 fugitive, convicted Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, was arrested on Monday at a private clinic in Palermo, Sicily, after 30 years on the run, Italian paramilitary police said.

Messina 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.

Messina Denaro was taken to a secret location by police immediately after the arrest, Italian state television reported.

A young man when he went into hiding, he is now 60. Messina Denaro, who had a power base in the port city of Trapani, in western Sicily, was considered Sicily’s Cosa Nostra top boss even while a fugitive, The Associated Press said.

He was the last of three longtime fugitive top-level Mafia bosses who had for decades eluded capture.

Messina Denaro, who tried in absentia and convicted of dozens of murders, faces multiple life sentences.

He is set to be imprisoned for are two bombings in Sicily in 1992 that murdered top anti-Mafia prosecutors, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. Among other grisly crimes he was convicted of is the murder of a Mafia turncoat's young son, who was strangled and his body dissolved in a vat of acid.

The arrest Monday came 30 years and a day after the capture of convicted “boss of bosses” Salvatore “Toto” Riina, in a Palermo apartment after 23 years on the run.



French Politicians Condemn Mosque Stabbing Attack

A protestor holds a sign reading "Justice for Aboubakar, Islamophobia kills" during a gathering in tribute to Aboubakar, the worshipper killed in a mosque at La Grand-Combe, and against Islamophobia, at the Place de la Republique in Paris on April 27, 2025. (Photo by Alain JOCARD / AFP)
A protestor holds a sign reading "Justice for Aboubakar, Islamophobia kills" during a gathering in tribute to Aboubakar, the worshipper killed in a mosque at La Grand-Combe, and against Islamophobia, at the Place de la Republique in Paris on April 27, 2025. (Photo by Alain JOCARD / AFP)
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French Politicians Condemn Mosque Stabbing Attack

A protestor holds a sign reading "Justice for Aboubakar, Islamophobia kills" during a gathering in tribute to Aboubakar, the worshipper killed in a mosque at La Grand-Combe, and against Islamophobia, at the Place de la Republique in Paris on April 27, 2025. (Photo by Alain JOCARD / AFP)
A protestor holds a sign reading "Justice for Aboubakar, Islamophobia kills" during a gathering in tribute to Aboubakar, the worshipper killed in a mosque at La Grand-Combe, and against Islamophobia, at the Place de la Republique in Paris on April 27, 2025. (Photo by Alain JOCARD / AFP)

French politicians on Sunday condemned an attack in which a man was stabbed to death while praying at a mosque in southern France, an incident that was captured on video and disseminated on Snapchat.
President Emmanuel Macron offered his support to the man's family and to the French Muslim community, writing in a post on X: "Racism and religiously motivated hatred will never belong in France."
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau on Sunday visited the town of Ales where Friday's attack took place and met with religious leaders, Reuters reported.
He said the suspect, who was still at large, had made anti-Muslim comments and had said he wanted to kill others. "So there is a fascination with violence," Retailleau told French broadcaster BFM TV.
The town's prosecutor told reporters on Sunday the suspect had been identified. The suspect's brother had been questioned by investigators on Saturday.
A march to commemorate the victim took place in the nearby town of La Grand-Combe, on Sunday afternoon and a demonstration against Islamophobia was expected in Paris in the evening.
France, a country that prides itself on its homegrown secularism known as "laicite," has the largest Muslim population in Europe, numbering more than 6 million and making up around 10% of the country's population.