Sex pills and designer clothes found in mafia boss Messina Denaro’s hideout

PALERMO, Italy, Jan 17 (Reuters) – Perfumes, designer clothes and sex pills were discovered on Tuesday in an apartment which investigators believe was the last hiding place of Sicilian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, sources said. judicial sources, a day after the arrest of the fugitive.
Messina Denaro, 60, arrested Monday at a private hospital in Palermo after 30 years on the run, is being held in the Italian town of L’Aquila, the Palermo prosecutor said. He was transferred from Sicily the day of his arrest.
The apartment is in a modest building near the center of Campobello di Mazara, a town in the western Sicilian province of Trapani, a few kilometers from Castelvetrano, the birthplace of Messina Denaro.
Investigators found clothes, shoes, a well-stocked fridge and restaurant tickets there, law enforcement sources said. They also found potency pills.
“He had a normal life, he went to the supermarket,” said magistrate Paolo Guido, one of the heads of the Messina Denaro investigation.
Neighbors described him as a friendly person.
“I live on the first floor of the building, sometimes I saw this person, I greeted him and nothing else. He responded in a cordial way,” Rosario Cognata told Italian media.
[1/5] Carabinieri police guard near the hideout of Matteo Messina Denaro, Italy’s most wanted mafia boss, after his arrest, in the Sicilian town of Campobello di Mazara, Italy, January 17, 2023. REUTERS/Antonio Parrinello
THE TASTE OF LUXURY
Messina Denaro was known for her taste for luxury goods, including designer clothes and expensive sunglasses. Police said he was wearing a watch worth 35,000 euros ($38,000) when he was arrested.
Messina Denaro is believed to have lived in the flat for the past year, court sources said, but police are still looking for other places where he could have spent time.
Investigators believe Messina Denaro was taken to Palermo’s La Maddalena Hospital from Campobello di Mazara on Monday to be treated for cancer. The town was home to his alleged assistant Giovanni Luppino, who was arrested along with him.
Police have under investigation doctor Alfonso Tumbarello, suspected of aiding and abetting the mafia boss, court sources say, because he was caring for Messina Denaro, who was undergoing cancer treatment under an assumed name .
The sources said he gave the name of Andrea Bonafede, who was the owner of the apartment Messina Denaro lived in, and who is also under investigation.
Nicknamed “‘U Siccu” (The Skinny), Messina Denaro received 20 life sentences in trials held in absentia for his role in a series of mob killings, including the bombings that killed the anti-Mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. in 1992.
Despite his illness, prosecutors say Messina Denaro is fit enough to serve a prison sentence where he will continue his cancer treatment. ($1 = 0.9232 euros)
Additional reporting by Angelo Amante and Alvise Armellini in Rome Writing by Angelo Amante Editing by Keith Weir and Tomasz Janowski
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