(CNN Spanish) – Fugitive since 1993 and consider it europol As one of Europe’s most wanted men, Italian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro was eventually arrested by police while receiving medical treatment in Sicily, according to prosecution.

But who exactly is “Diabolik” – as this Cosa Nostra mob boss is known – and why did he go after it?

Denarau is Considered One of the successors of Bernardo Provenzano, a mafia boss who was arrested outside Corleone, Sicily, in April 2006.

She was convicted He was brought to life in absentia in 1992 for his role in the murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, and is responsible for dozens of other Mafia-related murders.

“Diabolik” was allegedly seen in September 2021, leading to a manhunt and hundreds of leads, to me Attorney General Maurizio de Lucía.

He was arrested on Monday, January 16, during a dawn raid carried out by agents specialized in the anti-Mafia Carabinieri, while he was being treated in a clinic in Palermo, Sicily. Born in 1962, according to data from europolHe is 60 years old and holds Italian citizenship.

During his years as a fugitive from justice, Denaro continued to lead the Sicilian Mafia through a network of collaborators, some with no criminal record and little to suggest they had a connection to organized crime. including a shepherd, dairy farm owner, truck driver and inspector, good with the Italian authorities.

These “men of honor” transmitted Denaro orders. A police press release said they met secretly in remote parts of the countryside to deliver messages from his boss – or “bizini” – using carefully coded language when they spoke to avoid detection.

In 2015, 11 of these were collaborators Arrested by the Italian police, and it was believed that Denaro’s organization had taken a heavy blow, although his arrest was only made on Monday.

Denaro is considered the successor to Bernardo Provenzano, who was captured in 2006, as the boss of the Sicilian mafia. At that time, researchers elapsed About Provenzano – a fugitive since 1963 – in the town of Corleone, near his hometown in Sicily, famous for appearing in the “Godfather” novels by Mario Puzo.

Provenzano, then 73, was Accused By the authorities, he has taken charge of the Cosa Nostra with an iron fist since he took office.

With information from Barbie Latza Nadeau, Antonia Mortensen, and Laura Smith-Spark.