Possible mafia head arrested in The Hague, lawyer speaks of mistaken identity

A man was arrested in a restaurant in The Hague on Wednesday who, according to the Public Prosecution Service, is the infamous fugitive Sicilian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro. That reports Het Parool . But the suspect's lawyer says there has been a mistake of identity: the detainee would be another man from Liverpool.

The owner of restaurant Het Pleidooi in The Hague tells the newspaper that a police force with seven cars stopped for the case on Wednesday afternoon. Three men at a table were taken away blindfolded by officers with guns drawn.

The Public Prosecution Service confirms to the NOS that a man has been arrested at the request of the Italian authorities. According to the newspaper, 59-year-old Matteo Messina Denaro was the target of the action. He is seen as the capo di tutti capi of the mafia in Sicily, the leader Italy has been looking for for years.

massacres
Denaro has been in hiding since 1993. He is said to have been involved in the notorious murders of the investigating judges Falcone and Borsellino in Sicily in the early 1990s. He is also wanted for massacres that the cosa nostra caused in Rome, Florence and Milan during the same period.

The only question is whether the Dutch Public Prosecution Service has indeed managed to catch this big fish. Attorney Leon van Kleef, who represents the suspect, does not think so. Van Kleef says that the detainee is completely someone else: 54-year-old Mark L. from Liverpool, who met the lawyer years ago in a criminal case in which friends of L. were tried.

L. would have come to the Netherlands from his hometown in Spain for the grand prix at Zandvoort and was arrested during a dinner with his son in the restaurant.

Nightmare
According to lawyer Van Kleef, L. was transferred to the extra-security prison in Vught. It is unclear, according to him, how the judiciary came to this confusion. Van Kleef tells the NOS that DNA has been taken from his client. He hopes that it will soon become clear that it is not about the wanted mafia boss. "Of course it's a nightmare if this happens to you. You are having a bite to eat and you end up in the EBI."

Van Kleef is convinced that the arrested man is not the wanted Italian who has assumed a new identity as an Englishman. "Anything is possible, of course, but I'm willing to bet that there is a mistake."

The Public Prosecution Service says that an investigation is still being conducted into the identity of the suspect.

Leon Van Kleef is a well-known lawyer, who follows many serious suspects and who ten years ago was also involved in an investigation into an international cocaine trafficking run by Sicilian and Calabrian families (a story that ended with his acquittal ).

I do believe the target was MMD, the Dutch acting on Italian intelligence. Very interesting if he was in Holland recently.

Woah that's huge if it's true. Very interested to see how it plays out.

Cocaine trafficking run by Sicilian and Calabrian families huh? See I've been saying for the longest that Sicilians aren't subservient to the Calabrians and vice versa, they work TOGETHER. The Calabrians have the upper hand in the drug trade but I think things will even out if it hasn't already.

Southern Italy is its own world, I agree with you, in the sense that they have always been working together. As far as whose on top, the lodges, masons, padrini, politicians and secret services all across the world make up the ‘Spider web’.

It’s more than just a cocaine things, it’s a governance thing, like Caesar.

According to turncoat MMD while traveling was protected by members of the 'Ndrangheta.

So whats the real deal? Was it in fact Messina Denaro? Or a misidentification?

Still unclear the Dutch are waiting for DNA results.

Gotcha. Thanks Hollander

Pic: Europol

The story of the arrest (or alleged arrest) of the boss of the Italian mafia in The Hague, last Wednesday, took on the tones of yellow: the man that the arrestatie team - the nocs of the Dutch police - took from a restaurant in the third Dutch city blindfolded and then thrown into the fort of the Dutch prisons, Vught, is Matteo Messina Denaro?

According to the lawyer of the man in prison, definitely not: “if my client is Messina Denaro, I am the Pope”, he would have told the Dutch press.

This story shows several dark sides that at the moment it is not possible to clarify because public information is scarce.

In the meantime, it is worthwhile to understand who made the name of Messina Denaro first. The Amsterdam daily Het Parool, one of the main Dutch newspapers, was the first to publish the news, at 1 pm on 10 September : despite the conditional sentence, the newspaper's portal said in the article that the OM, the prosecutor who ordered the raid in the restaurant, he would have mentioned the name of Messina Denaro because the operation would have been the execution of an arrest warrant issued by Italy.

The article is written by Wouter Laumans, one of the greatest Mafia experts in the Netherlands, author of Mocro Maffia and Maffia Paradijs, the latter a book dedicated to the Italian criminal presence in the Netherlands.

The sources therefore enjoy the highest level of reputation and if the operation had really started with a request from Italy it is very likely that the investigators in our country had accurate information.

The news was then picked up by NOS, the state TV portal in the Netherlands, while in Italy no national media covered the matter.

In short, the question awaiting an answer is the following: what information did the Italian and Dutch investigators have in hand for having decided to raid the Den Haag restaurant?

Had the Anti-Mafia Investigation Department therefore picked up any signs that could suggest Messina Denaro's presence in the Netherlands?

The arrest would have taken place on Wednesday and if the circumstance of the mistaken identity were confirmed , it would remain to wonder how it was possible, for the highest investigative ranks of the two countries, to make such a mistake.

I don't think he left Italy in last 10 years or so , he is one of most wanted people in the world , it would be stupid to go traveling around while in Italy you have protection of politicians,freemasonry,secret services and mafia members.

But lets see how this turns out , almost no media coverage of this , if it turns out to be him we will know right away.

In 2015 , it was reported there were satellite images of his alleged home in Baden, Germany, and his car. However, there have been no confirmations or denials of the investigators on this fact.

Please keep us posted as to the outcome of this, ok guys? thanks

It's very possible that he's traveling around Europe - I'm sure he has many ways to escape each country within an hour. And with him being on the run since 1993 and barely any photos (and no photos in the last what... 15 years?) he can hide in plain sight as well.

Yes planes are more risky but with a car you can travel freely within the EU. Schengen Agreement no borders.

The unknown man was arrested in a favorite restaurant of justice employees and lawyers. Guests and staff of restaurant Het Pleidooi in The Hague were shocked on Wednesday afternoon when a police force raided the place. Three men sitting at a table were taken away blindfolded. The owner is still stunned by the whole situation. “There were suddenly seven cars in front of the business. Officers with guns drawn. They hadn't even called ahead of time! It was really not normal.”

The investigation into the identity of the arrested suspect is still ongoing.

They should leave the guy alone. He didn't do anything wrong, I feel.

The man has been released he's not the wanted fugitive.

Beat me too it. On Baden Germany, it was not Denaro either. Denaro stays in Sicily, but every few years he travels abroad. The story about Spain is true, and he may have stayed there for awhile, this was years ago when he had surgery, unknown what it was but Interpol and other agencies believe he had plastic surgery done. The last confirmed sighting of him was in Sicily during a football game when the heads of Trapani, Palermo, Agrigento providence's, as well as Calabrians from Italy meet to discuss partnerships, as well of the Sicilians making changes to the structures in a few families at a different meeting. The only thing LE can go on is that LE knows that every few years Denaro travels to the Netherlands to see a specialist doctor, and he stays close to his family in Sicily years ago. After the Carabinieri cracked down on many of his family members in the last few years, the last one they were close only missing Denaro by about a month, Denaro stays in Sicily, but it is more likely and practical to keep his distance while observing his own family from a far. He still has at least two or three messengers. The Carabinieri and Polizia di Stato have been grabbing many of his messengers over the years, to give them some Intel and general overview of his operations even if his own members don't talk, there are still rivals that get caught and a few of them tell what they know. The police are one thing, but his rivals are another as the LE will take him into custody, his rivals would kill him.

Slippery as a fish! LOL

Italians especially the ones that have genes that they go bald and gain weight can look completely different regardless of plastic surgery . I don’t know anything about this guy nor have i seen a picture but if he is in his 60’s and he has any of those traits i spoke of he could be walking by LE every day .

Philip Leonetti they said he had plastic surgery … he got a face lift on feds dime …. His genes are the kind that dont change … he looks the same other then graying thinning hair . He could not walk down the street in Philly to this day someone would know .

A repentant said that the fugitive would have undergone plastic surgery on the face, in order not to be recognizable. The intervention would have taken place in Piedmont or in the Aosta Valley. [38] An informant, on the other hand, stated on the contrary that Matteo Messina Denaro made plastic in Bulgaria, both on the face and on the fingertips, in order not to be recognizable. He also claimed that the fugitive has health problems: he hardly sees anymore and is on dialysis. The witness said that Messina Denaro went several times to Pisa and Lamezia Terme, and that he would be protected by the 'Ndrangheta . The Florence District Anti-Mafia Prosecutor's Office investigated his story. [39]

His inaction was also financed by gambling, practiced in Sicily and Malta , where the entrepreneur Carlo Cattaneo went several times. [40]

Messina Denaro also has ties with Venezuela , where some people linked to the fugitive would have managed his interests. [41]

On April 16, 2019, as part of the investigation into Messina Denaro's inaction, two carabinieri were arrested on charges of aiding and abetting the mafia, and Antonino Vaccarino, the former mayor of Castelvetrano [42] who sent pizzini to Messina , was also arrested Money. [43]

In March 2019 a Masonic lodge was discovered in Castelvetrano , the birthplace of the boss and reference of the mafia clan [44] , an operation which was followed in November by an anti-drug blitz in Palermo, in which Antonio Messina, a former lawyer disbarred from Trapanese albo and freemason of long standing, who kept in touch with the Sicilian crime rooted in the Milanese [45] [46] in the context of a hashish trafficking organized between Spain, Milan and Sicily. [47]

In December 2019 it was revealed that in 2015, when the magistrate Teresa Principato was the head of the pool investigating Messina Denaro, a 10-inch laptop and two pendrives, with information regarding the investigations and covered by secret of inquiry. [48]

The investigations also led to Milan, where some men linked to the 'Ndrangheta and drug trafficking could constitute his safety net that allows him to be a fugitive. [49]

In February 2020, after the capture of the boss Salvatore Nicitra, one of the leaders of the Banda della Magliana , the investigations also led to Rome, because Nicitra had strong ties with the Cosa Nostra in Agrigento , which is believed to finance Messina Denaro's inaction. [50] Nicitra was active in the gambling and slot machines sector, and had links with Albanian bosses. [51]

Between 15 and 20 June 2020, numerous supporters of Messina Denaro are arrested, initially Francesco Domingo considered to be the boss of Castellammare del Golfo and at the top of the Trapani mafia joints and connection with the American Cosa Nostra . Together with him 11 people were reported and the mayor of the city Nicola Rizzo was also investigated [52] . Finally, the registry residence of the fugitive boss in Castelvetrano was searched and 15 people investigated in various capacities between Sicily and Caserta, while the arrested included Giuseppe Calcagno who performed the task of "postman" in the delivery of orders through pizzini and Marco Manzo who represented Matteo Messina Denaro in the various meetings of the criminal organization [53][54]

On 21 October 2020 he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Court of Assizes of Caltanissetta for having been one of the instigators of the Capaci and via D'Amelio massacres [55] .

Matteo Messina Denaro is a far greater legend than El Chapo, yet most of the world never heard of him. Imagine how many rappers would steal his name if only they knew about him lol.

Hey Serp, I remember watching that interview that Phil did with CBS in like '12 with John Miller who said Phil looked so different that he accidently walked past him in the hotel lobby (big eye roll) . Why are journalist continuing with the whole plastic surgery changes his whole face theory. A few people have said Phil looks the exact same but old. Is this just because Phil doesn't want to show himself outside of the shadows?

The feds and people that get favors from feds work just like the politicians in DC they stick together and if one says there are 500 million in a racket they all will swear to it . First time i seen Phil after everything went down he was back checking on mom and grandmother and pretty sure its when he took him mom .
But anyway “i was standing in front of Muck’s Ducks pool hall that was next to the Regina Pharmacy where his wife and family lived house attached behind it . But anyway i see a car turn corner onto Arctic from Georgia three houses from Scarf. Inc and i looked the guy in the eye …. It was Phil i yelled out he smiled and put his index finger up like be quiet because there were a few guys around me . I have seen him many times since and he looks like he always did ….. but he says a joke he got a face lift on feds dime .

I don’t want to derail this persons thread so if you want to know anything search a Leonetti thread and ask there ,

I don't think that is MMD because no TV news passed the notice.

Hollander literally wrote in this thread that the man is innocent and they let him go.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying... while it's highly likely that this guy had plastic surgery, rarely who had seen him in person in the past 20 years. Maybe even more. Even if he didn't have surgery, he'd be probably be able to walk around and no one would recognize him. Sort like that scene in Narcos when Pablo Escobar walked around looking entirely different than what people know.

However, I remember reading that MMD had issues with his sight and that his eyes were crossed (could be wrong) - if so, that could be a giveaway.