The arrest of a murderous mafia boss who had been on the run for decades has sparked relief across Italy – while raising a pressing question: what happens to the mafia now?
Matteo Messina Denaro was detained on January 16 while at a hospital appointment, where he was receiving treatment for cancer.
He had been on the run since 1993 and was imprisoned in absentia for murders he committed in the early 1990s.
But with Messina Denaro now out of the game, who is now set to take over the mafia?
Why was he important in the mafia?
While Messina Denaro was Italy’s most wanted fugitive and the ringleader of the Mafia, some experts say he didn’t control all the Mafia clans – in part because he wasn’t originally from the Sicilian capital of Palermo.
Yet he was billed as the “last godfather” and was the last fugitive member of a generation of gangsters who orchestrated a series of bombings and murders that terrorized Italy in the early 1990s.
The man who was once the ‘boss of all bosses’, Salvatore ‘Toto’ Riina, was arrested in 1993 and died in 2017. His right-hand man, Bernando Provenzano, was arrested in 2006 and died in 2016.
According to some experts, Cosa Nostra, as the Sicilian mafia is known, has lacked an overlord for years, possibly since Riina – partly because the various clans struggled to come together and select one.
Historian John Dickie, who wrote the book Cosa Nostra: The Definitive History of the Sicilian Mafia, told Sky News the Mafia is broken, suggesting it may struggle to find someone to lead the group of clans around Palermo.
He said “the Mafia’s hierarchy, its leadership structure, its whole territorial structure…has been extremely disrupted” since the early 1990s.
The police think the mafia is looking for a super-boss
But some investigators see the Sicilian Mafia as a “one-headed structure” – and believe they are looking for their new super-boss.
Speaking about the future of the Mafia shortly after Messina Denaro’s arrest, Palermo Attorney General Lia Sava said: “What will happen in detail, we cannot know.
“But one thing is certain: the Cosa Nostra is made up of rules. It has relied on these rules for 150 years, so it will certainly implement these rules to repair the damage, and thus create the new leadership structure necessary after the Stop.”
Who could become the best boss?
So, if the clans sit around the table and elect a new leader, who would be in the running?
According to numerous reports in Italy, Settimo Mineo, 85, is a favorite. Officially, he runs a jewelry store in Palermo, but he is also considered one of the oldest Mafia bosses, being named Riina’s successor after his death.
Mineo, like many mob members, is currently serving a long prison sentence after being arrested on suspicion of being the ringleader of the mafia – but it’s not uncommon for executives to run the business behind bars.
Corriere della Sera, Italy’s leading newspaper, believes 64-year-old Giovanni Motisi, known to most as ‘The Fatman’, could be next on the list.
He is the boss of the organization’s Pagliarelli neighborhood in Palermo and has been on the run since 1998 after being found guilty of murdering a police officer. Motisi was also considered Riina’s most trusted hitman.
He is one of Italy’s most wanted men, some even say he may be dead.
The daily also specifies that Giuseppe Auteri, 48, the treasurer of the richest mafia district of Palermo, is also in the running.
Although an obstacle for Auteri could be the fact that he has been on the run for a year in the Sicilian belly.
Sandro Capizzi also has leadership ambitions in Sicily, according to Sky Tg24. 41-year-old father Benedetto tried to seize power in Cosa Nostra by force in 2008, but the couple were arrested by police who feared Sicily was on the brink of another mafia war.
But, the younger of the pair is free from jail and is said to be taking aim at the big boss.
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What’s next for the Cosa Nostra?
Despite its fame as a powerful and ruthless crime syndicate, the Mafia has been struggling for years.
In the lucrative drug market, it has been supplanted by the ‘Ndrangheta, an organization based in the Calabria region of southern Italy.
Although the Mafia retains control of Sicily and parts of the economy, Anna Sergi, an organized crime expert at the University of Essex, said: “Messina Denaro was the last godfather, he represented all the secrets by Cosa Nostra.
“It’s the end of a myth and the organization will have to deal with it.”
