Matteo Messina Denaro- Mafia Boss

Matteo Messina Denaro is a Sicilian mafioso. He is thought to be one of the new leaders of Cosa Nostra replacing Bernardo Provenzano who was arrested in 2006. He has been a fugitive since 1993.

The world's most famous organized crime network remains powerful and arguably its most formidable fugitive member is Denaro, who is also known as "Diabolic." The Italian mafia's playboy, Denaro is known for living a fast lifestyle, driving Porches and fancying Rolex watches. He is believed to be taking over the mafia's operations in the fallout surrounding the capture of long time Cosa Nostra leaders, most notably Bernardo Provenzano, who Italian authorities finally grabbed in 2006. Denaro played an important role in a Cosa Nostra campaign in 1993 involving deadly bomb attacks to force the government to stop its mafia crackdown.

Messina Denaro gets his money through an extensive extortion racket forcing businesses to pay a pizzo (protection money) and skimming off public construction contracts (the family owns substantial sand quarries). He is also active in the international drug trade, allegedly with the Cuntrera-Caruana clan, attracting attention of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

According to the Direzione distrettuale antimafia (DDA) of Palermo, he maintains contacts with relatives in Western New York and Vito Roberto Palazzolo, a fugitive Mafia boss in South Africa. He also has interests in Venezuela and contacts with Colombian drug trafficking cartels as well as the 'Ndrangheta. His illicit networks extend to Belgium and Germany.[9]

Matteo Messina Denaro has strong links with Mafia families in Palermo, in particular in Brancaccio, territory of the Graviano Family. Filippo Guttadauro the brother of the Giuseppe Guttadauro – the regent of the Brancaccio Mafia while Giuseppe Graviano and Filippo Graviano are in jail – is the brother-in-law of Messina Denaro. They are involved in cocaine trafficking in agreement with ‘Ndrangheta clans from Platì.

1993 bombings

After bomb attacks in Capaci and Via D’Amelio that killed prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, the arrest of Salvatore Riina on January 15, 1993 and the introduction of strict prison regime, Cosa Nostra embarked on a terrorist campaign in which Matteo Messina Denaro played a prominent role.

The remaining Mafia bosses, among them Matteo Messina Denaro, met several times (often in the Santa Flavia area in Bagheria on an estate owned by the mafioso Leonardo Greco). They decided on a strategy to force the Italian state to retreat. That resulted in a series of bomb attacks in Florence, Milan and Rome, Italy which left 10 people dead and 93 injured.