- He is accused of being a boss of the infamous Cosa Nostra Mafia.
- Coded note hidden within a chair leg assisted in the arrest of Italy’s most sought Mafia boss.
- Rosalia Messina Denaro was arrested in Sicily on Friday.
A warrant shows that a coded note hidden within a chair leg assisted in the arrest of Italy’s most sought Mafia boss, Matteo Messina Denaro.
The note was discovered during a clandestine operation at his sister Rosalia’s house, one month before his arrest in Palermo, Sicily, in January.
Rosalia Messina Denaro was arrested in Sicily on Friday.
Her brother, 60, has been on the run for 30 years and is thought to have gotten away with the help of family.
He is accused of being a boss of the infamous Cosa Nostra Mafia and was tried and sentenced to life in prison in absentia for a slew of killings in 2002.
On January 16, he was apprehended by police outside a private clinic in Palermo where he was undergoing cancer treatment under a false identity.
More than 100 military personnel were engaged in his arrest.
Rosalia Messina Denaro, 67, also known as Rosetta, was arrested in Sicily on Friday on mafia membership accusations, with the Carabinieri – Italian police – issuing a 57-page arrest warrant outlining some of the events that led to her brother’s earlier detention.
According to the warrant, police discovered a message within the leg of an aluminum chair in Rosalia’s home in Castelvetrano, on the west of the island, while attempting to put a listening device inside during an operation in December.
Police photographed the note, which appeared to be a mix of words, signs, and letters at first, then reinstalled it where it was discovered.
The message was a Pizzino, which was a small piece of paper written in code that Messina Denaro used to communicate with his relatives and affiliates.
The analysis, it detailed a man’s battle with colon cancer, with investigators focusing their attention on Messina Denaro after confirming that no other family members had similar cancer diagnoses.
The “historic result of the capture… originated from a note, imprudently kept, albeit hidden, by Rosetta”, a judge wrote in the warrant.
She is alleged to have played a major role in her mafia family, acting as treasurer, with police saying she communicated with her brother using the code name “Fragolone”, or “big strawberry”.
Rosalia was described as having “origins and customs all inspired by an orthodox and rock-hard mafia culture” in the warrant.
According to the warrant, she is being investigated for being a member of the mafia organization and committing crimes through her membership, including assisting her brother in avoiding multiple jail sentences, assisting him in continuing in his role as the organization’s boss, and ensuring that other members of the organization could communicate with him while he was hiding from authorities.
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