Sister’s coded note led to the arrest of Matteo Messina Denaro, Sicilian mafia’s ‘last godfather’

The Italian police arrested the country’s most-wanted mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro after a coded note or pizzini (small pieces of papers that Denaro used to deliver his hand-typed instructions) was found in his older sister’s house. Denaro who has also been described as “the last godfather of the Sicilian mafia” was arrested earlier this year, as per media reports citing court documents and the arrest warrant.

Additionally, Rosalia (Rosetta) Messina Denaro was also arrested on Friday (March 3) for allegedly helping her brother to evade arrest for nearly three decades now and acting as a “cashier” of the “family”, reported the Guardian. The 67-year-old was detained in Sicily on mafia membership charges said the local police in a 57-page arrest warrant.

Her brother who until January was Italy’s, most-wanted man was caught in Palermo on January 16 outside a private clinic for cancer patients where he was receiving treatment under the fake name of Andrea Bonafede. Reportedly, more than 100 members of the armed forces were involved in the arrest.

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According to the warrant, the 60-year-old’s arrest came after police found a coded note inside the leg of an aluminium chair at Rosalia’s residence in the western Sicilian town of Castelvetrano. The analysis of the note which seemed like a random mix of letters, signs, and words also revealed that the mafia boss was struggling with colon cancer.

Notably, his sister was also supposedly running the network of pizzini helping her brother the mafia boss to maintain communication with his organisation while he was in hiding. The warrant also described Rosalia as a woman with “origins and traditions all inspired by an orthodox and rock-hard mafia culture”.

Alfredo Montalto, who ordered her arrest said that Rosalia was “a person of absolute trust of the boss. She managed the network of pizzini through which Denaro delivered his orders to the other associates.” Meanwhile, his sister who allegedly had a major role in her mafia family used the code name “Fragolone”, or “big strawberry,” to communicate with her brother.

According to reports, Rosalia’s husband, Filippo Guttadauro is also a convicted Sicilian mobster, while her daughter Lorenza is Matteo Messina Denaro’s defence lawyer. Among the long list of charges against the mafia boss includes the killings of anti-mafia magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in bomb attacks in 1992.

Additionally, Denaro also has also been accused of some of the most heinous crimes committed by the Sicilian mafia like the alleged murder of a 12-year-old son of a mobster turned state witness, who was strangled and dissolved in acid.

(With inputs from agencies)

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