The code of omertà: how a mafia kingpin evaded police for 30 years – podcast

Matteo Messina Denaro was arrested after decades on the run, found hiding in plain sight in Sicily. Lorenzo Tondo and Clare Longrigg report on what it means for the once mighty Cosa Nostra

The end of the line for Matteo Messina Denaro came in mundane fashion. On a Monday morning this month, the mafia boss was waiting in a queue for a Covid vaccine in Palermo when police closed in. A colonel from the carabinieri, Italy’s militarised police, asked him: “Are you Matteo Messina Denaro?”

“You know who I am,” came the reply.