Matteo Messina Denaro was one of Italy’s most wanted criminals. They called him the ghost, he was on the run for almost 30 years. The boss of the bosses of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra was caught in the middle of Palermo.
from
Oliver Meiler, Rome
they called him fantasy, ghost. and l’invisible, the invisible one. In Italy, it has sometimes been wondered if Matteo Messina Denaro, boss of bosses at the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, could have had a new face transplanted onto his head to evade the grip of the police. He did that for thirty years. The photos of him that circulated were old. There were identikit images for the manhunt, but one always wondered what they were worth. Well, they weren’t bad at all, as the first recent photo after the arrest shows, it’s a snapshot from a police van: the boss is wearing a wool cap, sunglasses and a brown leather jacket.