The capture of Matteo Messina: “It is a bittersweet victory, at 60 he was already a weakened capo”

Matteo Messina Denaro evaded justice for three decades. But this Monday the 16th, the nickname ‘Diabolik’ – who was the leader of the Cosa Nostra and considered one of the mobsters most feared in Italy – was arrested in a private clinic in Palermo while waiting his turn to receive his cancer treatment. He is credited with the phrase: “With the people I’ve killed, I could fill a whole graveyard.”.

LOOK: Famous singer would have been murdered by his wife to keep his land

Although he used his pseudonym Andrea Bonafede, when cornered by the police, the kingpin born in 1963 did not bother to defend himself and self-identified with his true identity. “This is a high value arrest -He says Francesco Tucci, Italian internationalist and co-author of the book “Ask with respect”in which he reflects on the mafia, migration and cinema-. However, it must be considered that he stayed in the same place, that he hid under the noses of the police”.

“Why do you think they were just able to capture him?”

There are several reasons. First: he is sick, he has cancer. Second: in these years many of his relatives died, so the network that protected him was reduced. Third: when a boss falls it is because there is already another boss. It could be said that, at 60 years of age, the Cosa Nostra he abandoned him, he was left without backup and they found him easily. He’s not the big boss anymore, so this is a bittersweet victory.

“What is the significance of your capture?”

You have to be careful. It is true that, finally, one of the bloodiest leaders of the Cosa Nostra was arrested. But this happens when he is sick and in the doldrums. You also have to consider that he is not going to give information to the police, so I don’t know how useful it is to capture him. He is going to be prosecuted and it is very likely that he will never get out of jail, but he is not going to betray anyone. As far as we know, he is not sorry, otherwise he would have given himself up.

—Messina is spoken of as one of the people who contributed the most to the formation of the idea of ​​Cosa Nostra. Do you agree?

He was the dolphin Salvatore Riina [del clan Corleone, capturado en 1993]. But the image that she gave has nothing to do with honor or any other type of values, but that of a bloody mob. It is not the organization that was seen in “The Godfather”, but the one that kills children, plants bombs, resorts to terrorism, murders innocents. It has nothing to do with the character Vito Corleone.

—How do you explain that romanticization?

The generation of bosses Salvatore Riina Y Bernardo Provenzano It is that of violent, bloodthirsty leaders, but since before the mafia killed policemen and magistrates almost daily. With that in mind, it must be considered that Italian migration to USA accentuated the formation of stereotypes. Just look”the sopranos” either “Peaky Blinders” to tell the difference: honor and respect for the family were always out of the equation, especially in the 80s and 90s. Decades ago, revenge was crossed: relatives of the other clan were killed even if they had nothing to do with it . This is how the four historical mafias operated, the Quarrel, Cosa Nostra, ndrangheta Y Sacred Crown Unitaalthough the romanticization was only applied to the first three.

Photograph of mobster Matteo Messina provided by Italian police. AFP (HANDOUT/)

How different is the way of operating the current Italian mafia to that of the Messina era?

It has changed a lot. Let’s take Pablo Escobar as an example: he killed everyone who opposed him. that’s how they were Riina, Provenzano Y Messina, who showed the muscle when facing the State. Messina ordered the kidnapping, torture and murder of an 11-year-old teenager, the son of a confessed mobster, and the dissolution of his body in acid. He also did not hesitate to destroy a highway to assassinate the anti-mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone Or put a bomb in the prosecutor’s car Paolo Borsellino. But since then, the mafia has evolved and entered the financial market. See how it works Cali Cartel: now they are white collar businessmen. Of course, the need to control their territory is still in force: the business of extortionthe drug and arms trafficking. That will never end. But his work is less violent. After Riina, They realized that a scared man was more useful than a dead one.

—The capture takes place in the management of the controversial prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, how much political credit does she add?

She could boast that during her tenure one of the big bosses of the worst seasons of the State-mafia struggle was arrested. But she did not capture it. The investigations are 30 years old or more. Little is known about the details of the arrest yet, but in my opinion he is already a weakened, seemingly isolated boss. Even so, he managed to elude the police without hiding. He had surgery on his eyes, he went to a soccer game. He exposed himself, so something happened lately. When a boss is at the height of his power, it is very difficult to find him because, in addition, the mafia is capable of infiltrating the judicial system. That is why this victory is bittersweet. It would have been better to capture him in the 90s, the blow against organized crime would have been hard. Nonetheless, Messina’s arrest leaves an important message: justice is on its way and will come, no matter how old the gangsters are.

Source: Elcomercio