Most-wanted Italy’s Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro arrested in Sicily
Messina Denaro was reportedly detained in a private clinic in Sicily's capital, Palermo,.
He is alleged to be a boss of the notorious Cosa Nostra Mafia and he was tried and sentenced to life in jail in absentia in 2002 over numerous murders.
More than 100 members of the armed forces were involved in his arrest.
Italian media reported that Messina Denaro was captured just before 10:00 (09:00 GMT) and taken to a secret location by the Carabinieri. He was reportedly visiting the clinic under a fake name for a course of chemotherapy.
A video circulated by Italian media appears to show people standing in the street and applauding the Italian police as Messina Denaro is led away.
Messina Denaro once boasted he could "fill a cemetery" with his victims.
The Mafia boss also oversaw racketeering, illegal waste dumping, money-laundering and drug-trafficking for the powerful Cosa Nostra organised crime syndicate.
He was reportedly the protege of Totò Riina, head of the Corleone clan, who was arrested in 1993 after 23 years on the run.
Clans nicknamed Messina Denaro "Diabolik" - the name of an uncatchable thief in a comic book series - and "U Siccu" (Skinny).
He is thought to be Cosa Nostra's last "secret-keeper". Many informers and prosecutors believe that he holds all the information and the names of those involved in several of the most high-profile crimes by the Mafia, including the bomb attacks that killed magistrates Falcone and Borsellino.
Although Messina Denaro had been a fugitive since 1993, he was thought to have still been issuing orders to his subordinates from various secret locations.
Over the decades, Italian investigators often came close to catching Messina Denaro by monitoring those closest to him.
This resulted in the arrest of his sister Patrizia and several other of his associates in 2013. Police also seized valuable businesses linked to Messina Denaro, leaving him increasingly isolated.
However, few photos of Messina Denaro existed and police had to rely on digital composites to reconstruct his appearance in the decades after he went on the run. A recording of his voice was not released until 2021.
In September 2021, a Formula 1 fan from Liverpool was arrested at gunpoint in a restaurant in the Netherlands after being mistaken for Messina Denaro.
Italians were glued to their screens on Monday morning when news of the arrest of the mafia boss broke.
For years, Messina Denaro had been a symbol of the state's inability to reach the upper echelons of the organised crime syndicates.
His arrest will be an unexpected sign of hope that the Mafia can be eradicated even in the southern regions of the country, where the state is perceived as largely absent and ineffective.
University of Essex criminology professor Anna Sergi told the that Messina Denaro's arrest was "symbolic not just because he was the boss of Cosa Nostra, but because he represents the last fugitive the Italian state really wanted to get its hands on."
She said the reason people applauded in Palermo and the state felt "triumphant" was because the news felt like closure.
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