Matteo Messina Denaro

Matteo Messina Denaro
Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro on the cover of L'Espresso
Born	(1962-04-26) 26 April 1962 (age 54) Castelvetrano, Sicily, Italy
Nationality	Italian
Other names	Diabolik
Allegiance	Cosa Nostra

Matteo Messina Denaro (born 26 April 1962), also known as Diabolik, is a Sicilian Mafia boss. He got his nickname from the Italian comic book character of the same name. He is considered to be one of the new leaders of Cosa Nostra after the arrest of Bernardo Provenzano on 11 April 2006, and the most powerful after the arrest of Salvatore Lo Piccolo in November 2007. Matteo Messina Denaro became known nationally on 12 April 2001 when the magazine L'Espresso put him on the cover with the headline: Ecco il nuovo capo della mafia ("Here is the new boss of the Mafia"). He has been a fugitive since 1993 and according to Forbes magazine he is among the ten most wanted criminals in the world.

Messina Denaro used the pseudonym "Alessio" in his clandestine correspondence with former Mafia boss Provenzano. He suffers from severe myopia and received treatment for this condition at a clinic in Barcelona, Spain in 1994 and 1996.

Messina Denaro is often portrayed as a ruthless playboy mafioso and womaniser, driving an expensive Porsche sports car and wearing a Rolex Daytona watch, Ray Ban sunglasses and fancy clothes from Giorgio Armani and Versace. He is an ardent player of computer games, and is said to be the father of an illegitimate child, which is unusual in the conservative culture of the Mafia. Matteo has a reputation for fast living and allegedly killed a Sicilian hotel owner who accused him of taking young girls to bed. As such, he is remarkably different from traditional Mafia bosses like Salvatore Riina and Bernardo Provenzano who claim to adhere to conservative family values.