The secret bunker of the godfather of the Sicilian mafia was found: the entrance was in the closet

Italian military police have discovered a possible secret bunker allegedly used by Matteo Messina Denaro, the “last godfather” of the Sicilian mafia, who was arrested on Monday after 30 years on the run.

According to The Guardian, the entrance to the bunker was hidden in a closet full of clothes in a house in Campobello di Mazara, a small town in Sicily, where the apartment that Denaro, 60, was found on Tuesday.

Investigators said they found emeralds, diamonds and other gems, but they also looked for documents believed to be in Denaro’s possession. In particular, law enforcement agencies tried to find the secret archive of the “boss of bosses” of the Sicilian mafia, Toto Riina, who died in 2017. This archive, according to some Mafia informants, was stolen by Denaro and supposedly contains the secrets of the Mafia’s murders over the past 40 years.

Prosecutors believe Denaro holds the key to some of the most heinous crimes committed by the Sicilian Mafia, including the 1992 bombings that killed anti-mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, and the 1996 murder of Giuseppe Di Matteo, 12 -year-old son of a mafia who became a government witness. The boy was strangled and dissolved in acid.

Denaro was found guilty in 2002 and sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment for personally killing or ordering the killings of dozens of people.

Denaro, nicknamed Diabolic or U Siccu (“Skinny”), was born in Castelvetrano in Sicily in 1962. His father was the powerful boss of Cosa Nostra, and Denaro prospered in the family business, creating an illegal multi-billion dollar empire in waste management, wind energy and retail.

Mafia bosses in Italy are known for building escape tunnels under their homes to protect themselves, elaborate mountain bunkers that can only be reached on foot, and shelters in the woods in case they are on the run.

The purpose and dimensions of the building at Campobello di Mazara are not yet fully known. Denaro was arrested on Monday at a medical clinic in Palermo, where he was being treated for a tumor.

The house, located on Via Maggiore Toselli, is believed to belong to a man who was previously convicted of having links with the mafia and was acquitted in 2001.

In recent months, Denaro lived in a small apartment inside a two-story yellow building in the center of Campobello di Mazar, in the province of Trapani. “This is a normal, well-renovated, comfortable apartment,” said Colonel Marco Bottino, commander of the Trapanikarabini military police. “He lived there for at least six months.”

During a search of the house, designer clothes, expensive shoes, condoms, Viagra pills and restaurant receipts were found.

The man, who lived on the second floor of the building, told reporters he didn’t know his neighbor was a notorious mob boss. “From time to time I saw this person, said hello and nothing more. He answered me cordially,” the man says.

Campobello traffic police commander said that many citizens say they saw Denaro drink coffee in the morning at a bar or go to a pizzeria for dinner. “I didn’t know him. I didn’t know who he was. Why should I have suspected something? – said another neighbor of the mafia boss. – For me, he was a signor who said “Good morning and good evening.” He always said hello.”

However, investigators said they doubt that in Campobello, a small town of 10,000 people, no one knew that the most wanted mafia boss on the planet lives there.

The apartment was owned by Andrea Bonafede, the same name that appeared on the fake ID that Denaro had at the time of his arrest. But Andrea Bonafede is not just a fake name. He was found by the police, who took him to the prosecutor’s office for questioning.

For years, some investigators assumed that Denaro fled to France or South America. Yet Denaro, who was once considered a candidate for boss of Sicilian mafia bosses, has never really left his stronghold since the deaths of Bernardo Provenzano in 2016 and Salvatore Riina in 2017.

Carabinieri general Pasquale Angelosanto said: “It is possible that he left Sicily and traveled abroad from time to time, but we believe that Denaro, in the end, like many other mafiosi, did not leave the territory in which he operated.”

Investigators said they seized mobile phones and investigated Denaro’s personal physician, Alfonso Tumbarello. Over the past year, Denaro visited the La Maddalena clinic in Palermo at least six times to undergo chemotherapy. According to the investigation, he suffers from a tumor. “His condition is serious,” Vittorio Gebbia, director of the oncology department at La Maddalena, told the Italian newspaper la Repubblica. “In recent months, the disease has accelerated.”