Palermo, Italy –
Perfume, designer clothes and a sex pill were found Tuesday in an apartment investigators believe is the last hiding place of Sicilian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, judicial sources said.
Messina Denaro, 60, was arrested Monday in a private hospital in Palermo after 30 years on the run and is being held in the central Italian city of L’Aquila, Palermo prosecutors said. He was transferred from Sicily on the day of his arrest.
This apartment is housed in a modest building near the center of Campobello di Mazzara, a town in the province of Trapani in western Sicily, just a few kilometers from Castelvetrano, Messina Denaro’s hometown.
According to judicial sources, investigators found clothing, shoes, a well-stocked refrigerator, and restaurant receipts.
“He was living a normal life. He was going to the supermarket,” said magistrate Paolo Guido, the official investigating Messina Denaro.
Neighbors said he was a friendly person.
Rosario Cognata told Italian media: “I live on the first floor of a building and I saw this person from time to time, he just said hello and didn’t say anything. He had a cordial attitude. I did,” he told Italian media.
taste of luxury
Messina Denaro was known for his taste for luxury items, including designer clothes and expensive sunglasses. Police said he was wearing a watch worth his €35,000 (US$38,000) when he was arrested.
Judicial sources say Messina Denaro is believed to have lived in the apartment for the past year, but police are still looking for other places where he may have spent time.
Investigators believe Messina Denaro was transported from Campobello di Mazzara to Palermo’s La Maddalena hospital for cancer treatment on Monday. The town was home to his alleged aide, Giovanni Luppino, who was arrested with him.
Police have placed doctor Alfonso Tumbarello under investigation for allegedly aiding a mafia boss, judicial sources said, judicial sources say he was being given anti-cancer treatment under a false name, Messina Denaro. He said it was because he was with him.
Sources said he was the owner of the apartment where Messina Denaro lived and named Andrea Bonafede under investigation.
Messina Denaro, nicknamed “U Siccu” (Skinny One), has been sentenced to 20 years in absentia for his involvement in a series of mob murders, including the bomb attacks that killed anti-Mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. was sentenced. 1992.
Despite his illness, prosecutors said Messina Denaro is in good enough shape to serve time in prison, where he will continue his cancer treatment.
(Additional reporting by Angelo Amante and Alvise Armerini in Rome; Writing by Angelo Amante; Editing by Keith Weir and Tomasz Janowski)