Italian Police Discover Second Bunker of Mafia Boss Messina Denaro

• Secret chamber included jewellery, precious stones, and cutlery.
• The back of a sliding base wardrobe was found to be Matteo Messina Denaro’s second hiding place.
• In Sicily, he had been participating in a chemotherapy treatment.

The back of a sliding base wardrobe was found to be Matteo Messina Denaro’s second hiding place, the most sought mobster in Italy.

According to Italian authorities, the secret chamber included jewellery, precious stones, and cutlery.

Empty paper boxes were also discovered, indicating that after Messina Denaro was detained on Monday, any possibly incriminating documents were disposed of.

In Sicily, he had been participating in a chemotherapy treatment.

The Mafia chief was arrested quickly and transferred to a prison in L’Aquila, in the Abruzzo area of central Italy, where reports indicate he will continue to get cancer treatment.

Messina Denaro turned down the opportunity to speak via videolink at a hearing on the 1992 murders of judges Paolo Falcone on Thursday.

Judges Paolo Falcone and Giovanni Borsellino were killed in 1992, but Messina Denaro failed to testify via videolink at a hearing into their deaths on Thursday.

The murders are just two of the numerous offences for which Messina Denaro, a former leader of the ruthless Cosa Nostra organised crime organisation, was convicted responsible.

According to Italian media, there are indications that the second refuge, a tiny chamber just big enough for one person, had been occupied “recently.”

In the Sicilian town of Campobello di Mazara, the bunker is located in a residence about 300 metres from the Mafia boss’s original hiding place.

Investigators arrived at that first place after discovering car keys in the backpack Messina Denaro was carrying at the time of his arrest. When police searched the area on Monday afternoon, they discovered a 60sq m ground floor flat, which was described as “comfortable”.

According to Italian media, the place also had two cell phones, Viagra pills, pricey furniture, and designer clothing. Luxury perfumes were also reportedly discovered there.

The mafia boss had been sought after by police for thirty years when he was apprehended on Monday. Under a fictitious name, he had scheduled the appointment at the clinic.

Police became suspicious of the identity Andrea Bonafede when they learned it was the nephew of late Mafia boss Leonardo Bonafede.

When a man using the identity had surgery in Palermo in 2020 and 2021, phone-mapping revealed the genuine Bonafede’s cellphone was not in the city.

Messina Denaro handled drug trafficking, unlawful dumping of garbage, money-laundering, and racketeering while he was the head of the Cosa Nostra organised crime syndicate.

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