Prosecutor details fugitive Mafia boss
Matteo Messina Denaro family nabbed, assets seized


(ANSA) - Rome, November 23 - Several members of the family of fugitive Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro have been arrested and assets have been seized as part of the current strategy to capture him, Palermo Prosecutor Teresa Maria Principato told the parliamentary anti-mafia commission Wednesday. Messina Denaro, 53, has been on the lam since 1993. Interpol has said that the Cosa Nostra boss, whose home fief is in Agrigento, is among the 10 most wanted criminals in the world.
"We've arrested almost all of Messina Denaro's blood relations - his sister, cousins, in-laws," she said. "I thought this might spark a reaction in the man but he's not normal. He's very cold." The prosecutor said confiscating over a million euros' worth of assets was a tactic aiming to hit the mobster's "deep attachment to money". Italian police in April arrested seven people in the countryside around the Sicilian city of Agrigento in what they said was a continuation of a "scorched earth" policy aimed at trapping the elusive head of the Sicilian Mafia - a tactic that won't work with him, the prosecutor warned lawmakers today.
Police said alleged bosses and accomplices, key parts of a support network for the fugitive Cosa Nostra chief, held meetings in the fields, walking around to evade possible surveillance devices.
Messina Denaro has not been seen in public in more than 20 years.

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