Italian police today found a second hideout of Matteo Messina Denaro, the Mafia superboss apprehended on Monday after 30 years on the run.
The fugitive mafia boss carved the hideout into a bunker in a house near his first hideout in an alley in Campobello di Mazara, police said. The first hideout was found on Tuesday. Among his personal belongings were designer clothes and Viagra.
Messina Denaro, 60, was Italy’s most wanted man before his sensational capture. He had his first hour-long ‘air’ break from the tough anti-mafia 41 bis prison regime at L’Aquila Prison earlier Wednesday. He was said to be relaxed and smiling despite being seriously ill with cancer. A chemotherapy unit is being set up for him in the jail.
Italian police say the infamous boss dubbed ‘Diabolik’ for his glamorous super-villain image was helped to evade capture by a “mafia middle class” across Sicily and especially around Trapani, his power base.
Hideout in bunker of house
The owner of the second hideout had previously been cleared of Mafia charges, sources said Wednesday. The man, Errico Risalvato, was investigated and then acquitted, in 2001, of charges of mafia association.
He is the owner of the house in Via Maggiore Toselli, in Campobello di Mazara, where police discovered Messina Denaro’s bunker. It is about 300 metres from the first one.
Errico’s brother, Giovanni Risalvato, sentenced to 14 years for mafia charges and now free, is a concrete contractor.
The second hideout is an armoured room accessed from the sliding bottom of a wardrobe, police said.
