Messina Denaro died in a prison hospital on 25 September 2023 after falling into an irreversible coma at the age of 61, after receiving treatment for colon cancer.

[7] Antonio D'Alì Sr. had to resign from the board of the Banca Sicula in 1983 because he appeared on the list of the secret freemason lodge Propaganda Due (P2) of Licio Gelli.

[citation needed] 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.

Messina Denaro had a reputation for fast living and allegedly killed a Sicilian hotel owner who accused him of taking young girls to bed.

[10] He was said to command some 900 men[citation needed] and apparently reorganised the 20 Mafia families in Trapani into one single mandamento separated from the rest of Cosa Nostra.

[citation needed] He was also active in the international drug trade, allegedly with the Cuntrera-Caruana clan, which attracted the attention of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

[citation needed] He also made money through legitimate business; he had stakes in a Sicilian supermarket chain and owned vast olive groves.

[citation needed] According to the Direzione distrettuale antimafia (DDA) of Palermo, he had interests in Venezuela and contacts with Colombian drug trafficking cartels as well as the 'Ndrangheta.

They are involved in cocaine trafficking in agreement with 'Ndrangheta clans from Platì, Marina di Gioiosa Ionica and Siderno, as well as the Mafia family of Mariano Agate.

[12][13] After bomb attacks in Capaci and Via D'Amelio that killed prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, the arrest of Salvatore Riina on 15 January 1993 and the introduction of strict prison regime (article 41-bis), Cosa Nostra embarked on a terrorist campaign in which Messina Denaro played a prominent role.

The remaining Mafia bosses, among them Messina Denaro, Giovanni Brusca, Leoluca Bagarella, Antonino Gioè [it], Giuseppe Graviano and Gioacchino La Barbera, met several times (often in the Santa Flavia area in Bagheria on an estate owned by the mafioso Leonardo Greco).

[18] According to investigators, between 1994 and 1996 Messina Denaro spent time in his hiding place located between Aspra and Bagheria with his lover Maria Mesi, with whom he went on vacation to Greece under the false name of "Matteo Cracolici".

[21] In July 2006, investigators found other love letters from Maria Mesi at the home of Filippo Guttadauro,[22] who had the task of delivering them to his brother-in-law Messina Denaro.

His main rivals were supposed to be Salvatore Lo Piccolo, boss of the mandamento of San Lorenzo, Palermo, and Domenico Raccuglia from Altofonte.

Provenzano allegedly nominated Messina Denaro in one of his pizzini, which are small slips of paper used to communicate with other mafiosi to avoid phone conversations.

[33] On 18 November 2008, Italian authorities seized €700 million in assets from the supermarket king of Sicily, Giuseppe Grigoli, traceable to Messina Denaro.

"Having conquered the food distribution market, Grigoli was able to give jobs to hundreds of people close to Cosa Nostra or recommended by the Mafia", Scarpinato said.

He added that from evidence discovered on tiny paper-scrap messages found in the hut where Provenzano was arrested, Messina Denaro "knew to the last comma the accounts of Grigoli's supermarkets".

[39] In September 2010, police seized a record amount of assets, worth €1.5 billion, from Sicilian businessman Vito Nicastri, accused of working with Messina Denaro.

[40] The Italian police applied a new strategy to try to capture Messina Denaro, arresting scores of his underlings and seizing millions of euros in assets.

Palermo Chief Prosecutor Francesco Messineo added that the aim of the strategy against Messina Denaro was to "dry up the water he swims in".

They were part of a network surrounding the Mafia boss, and were charged with organizing Messina Denaro's secret correspondence in order to help him remain hidden.

They were tipped by the secret service Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Interna which had provided useful information for the previous arrests of Mafia bosses Giuseppe Falsone and Gerlandino Messina.

[47] In December 2014, there was a mention of Italian police coming close to apprehending Messina Denaro after they made an estimated €20 million seizure of his assets in the form of valuable olive groves in Trapani.

[57] On 10 September 2021, there was a Dutch news report that Messina Denaro might have been arrested two days earlier while in a restaurant in The Hague, after receiving a tip from Italian authorities.