"The Last Godfather's Hidden Fortune Found: 350 Billion Won Seized"

Boss of Sicilian Organization "Cosa Nostra"

Captured After 30 Years on the Run... Died of Colon Cancer

Italian police have tracked and seized assets worth hundreds of billions of won that were amassed during the lifetime of the true boss of the Sicilian mafia organization.

January 16, 2023, photo taken by Italian police showing Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro. Photo by AFP Yonhap News

On May 28, Yonhap News, citing AFP, reported that Italian police announced in a statement that they had seized assets worth 200 million euros (approximately 350 billion won) belonging to mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, who was arrested in 2023 and later died. The police stated, "This operation targeted several offshore locations," and explained that the assets had "been accumulated for personal gain since the 1980s."

Denaro is also known as a figure associated with the movie "The Godfather." He was the actual leader of the Sicilian mafia organization "Cosa Nostra," depicted in the film. As the successor to Sicilian mafia godfathers Toto Salvatore Riina and Bernardo Provenzano, Denaro began living as a fugitive in June 1993, yet continued to lead the "Cosa Nostra" organization while on the run. Italian media even referred to him as "the last godfather."

Denaro is believed to have been involved in the murders of at least 50 people. Authorities view him as playing a central role in numerous crimes, including the assassination of prosecutor Giovanni Falcone and judge Paolo Borsellino, who led a crackdown on the mafia in 1992; the 1993 bombing attacks in Milan, Rome, and Florence that killed 10 people; and the case in which he kidnapped the 12-year-old son of a former mafia member to prevent testimony, holding the boy captive for more than two years before brutally murdering him. During his lifetime, Denaro reportedly stated, "If you gathered all the bodies I've killed, you could fill a cemetery."

In 2002, while still on the run, Denaro was sentenced to life in prison in absentia. After 30 years as a fugitive, he was captured in January 2023 in Palermo, the capital of Sicily, but died in September that same year while receiving treatment for colon cancer.

Nicknamed "Diabolik," after an Italian comic character, Denaro was born in 1962 in the Trapani region at the western tip of Sicily. Following in the footsteps of his father, who was also a mafia boss, Denaro entered the mafia world and is said to have accumulated immense wealth through waste disposal, wind power generation, and retail businesses.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.