Secret 200m stash of mafia's 'last godfather' uncovered

Police seized nearly €200m in assets hidden by Matteo Messina Denaro, a Sicilian mafia boss who was a fugitive for 30 years. The operation identified assets and bank accounts in Italy, Spain, Monaco, Andorra, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Gibraltar, the Cayman Islands, and Lebanon. In Spain, investigators found luxury villas and related property in Marbella, Malaga, Benahavis, and Puerto Banus. Authorities linked eight companies to Denaro, including five in Spain, two in Gibraltar, and one in the Cayman Islands. Seized items included villas, expensive cars, a major stake in a Lebanese bank, and 12kg of gold. Three people were arrested, and the action relied on international collaboration to dismantle Cosa Nostra’s financial reach.

"Police have seized almost €200m worth of assets hidden away by Italy's "last godfather" in an international operation involving nine countries. The property and bank accounts belonged to Matteo Messina Denaro, a Sicilian mafia godfather who remained a fugitive for 30 years. The assets were discovered in Italy, Spain, Monaco, Andorra, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Gibraltar, the Cayman Islands and Lebanon."

"In Spain, luxury villas and other assets linked to the mafia don were found in the coastal towns of Marbella, Malaga, Benahavis and Puerto Banus. Police identified eight companies linked to Messina Denaro: five based in Spain, two in Gibraltar and one in the Cayman Islands. The assets seized included villas, expensive cars, a large stake in a Lebanese bank and 12kg of gold."

""Seizing these assets means continuing the dismantling process needed to prevent the emergence of structures once again capable of projecting, on a global scale, Cosa Nostra's full intimidating power and economic influence," said Giovanni Melillo, Italy's top anti-mafia prosecutor. "Collaboration between different countries was fundamental.""

"Three people were arrested in the joint operation, which was led by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate, an elite unit based in Palermo, Sicily's capital. The notorious mafia don, who once ordered a kidnapped 12-year-old boy to be dissolved in acid and reportedly boasted that he had killed so many people that he could fill a cemetery, was arrested in January 2023 while attending a clinic in Palermo where he was being treated for colon cancer. He died in hospital a few months later at the age of 61."

Read at Irish Independent