Anna Sergi said Messina Denaro’s arrest would pose new problems for the organisation.

“It’s very unlikely that he was dictating strategy, but he had a role in keeping the identity of the Cosa Nostra alive,” she added. “He was the symbolic gatekeeper, the glue of the organisation. Unless someone can have the same charisma, the same power of aggregation, it’s unlikely that the Cosa Nostra can come out of this untouched.”