“The very fact of belonging to the Cosa Nostra mafia association is a symptom in itself of a particularly dangerous personality with a tendency towards crime.”
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In the Rosalia Messina Denaro case, the investigating judge of Palermo wrote in the order that ordered the arrest of the sister of the former fugitive, "the fact that she was the woman who managed the relationships with the mafia boss at the highest level makes clear the danger that the entire association, after the arrest of her brother, could identify her as the new strategic mind of the organization".
Without considering, warns Alfredo Montanto, "that the flows of money managed by her are still all in circulation or kept in safe places", so "if left free, the woman could well commit other crimes aimed at the economic control of the territory or illicit reinvestments or more generally continue her criminal activity in Cosa Nostra or on behalf of Cosa Nostra".
The measure against the sister of the boss captured on January 16th after 30 years of latinanza in Palermo, was ordered by the investigating judge Alfredo Montalto, who accepted the request of the prosecutor De Lucia and the deputy Paolo Guido.
In action the Ros, the Carabinieri of the Provincial Command of Trapani and the helicopter squadron of the Cacciatori di Sicilia. According to the magistrates, Rosalia would have provided help to her brother for years during his time as a fugitive, managing the "cash" and the communication system (the so-called "pizzini") that allowed Matteo Messina Denaro to contact his clan and to continue his huge business even during his thirty-year time as a fugitive.
Rosalia Messina Denaro, 68 years old, is the older sister of Matteo Messina Denaro (the others are Patrizia, who is serving a sentence for mafia, Giovanna and Bice) and is married to Filippo Guttadauro, boss of Brancaccio (Palermo) who, after serving 14 years in prison for mafia association, remains in the 41 bis regime, due to his dangerousness.
She was arrested in Castelvetrano, in the family home. She is the mother of Lorenza Guttadauro, a lawyer and defender chosen by her uncle Matteo Messina Denaro, married to Luca Bellomo, released from prison a few months ago.
Rosalia Messina Denaro: Note Hidden in Her Home Led to Boss' Arrest
A note hidden in a chair in Rosalia Messina Denaro's house last December gave the input for the capture of the super-fugitive. The ROS military discovered it while they were placing some bugs in the woman's house. The note, written by Rosalia, contained a detailed description of Matteo Messina Denaro's clinical conditions.
With the precise diagnosis, the Carabinieri of the ROS and the magistrates of the DDA led by the prosecutor Maurizio de Lucia and the deputy Paolo Guido began to scan the database of the national health system to find people affected by that tumor of a compatible age and in Sicily.
A search that little by little led to the name of Andrea Bonafede. The final confirmation came by checking the cell phones of the real Andrea Bonafede and it emerged that at the time of the operations in Mazara del Vallo and Palermo his phone was working at home.
Rosalia Messina Denaro managed the family cash register
Matteo Messina Denaro's sister was stopped by the Carabinieri of the ROS in Castelvetrano, in the family home in via Alberto Mario. The pool coordinated by the prosecutor Maurizio de Lucia and the deputy Paolo Guido contests the accusation of mafia association: "For having managed the family's cash" and having been "the point of reference for the secret chain of the fugitive's notes".
Rosalia, known as Rosetta, the eldest of the former fugitive's four sisters, is the mother of Lorenza Guttadauro, a lawyer who has been assisting the mafia boss since the day of his arrest.
Like all historic mafia fugitives, forced to find a way to communicate despite their life on the run, Matteo Messina Denaro also used 'pizzini'. This emerges from the investigation by Palermo prosecutor Maurizio de Lucia and deputy Paolo Guido, which led today to the arrest of the boss's sister, Rosalia, a real collector of her brother's notes.
Dozens of notes were discovered after the arrest of the former fugitive. Messages rolled up, sealed with tape, often wrapped in small packages, and addressed to recipients indicated with code names such as “Fragolone (nickname of his sister Rosalia, ed.), Fragolina, Condor, Ciliegia, Reparto, Parmigiano, Malato, Complicato, Mela”.
The notes were conveyed through a chain, more or less long, of loyal followers, whom the boss himself, in his writings, defined as 'go-betweens'. In the fugitive's system, until now even more impenetrable than that of the other bosses, however, there was a flaw. For years Messina Denaro adopted a thousand precautions, first of all that of leaving no trace of the notes, which were rigorously destroyed after reading.
This time, however, the boss was the first to not observe the rule "having the need to communicate more briefly and with fewer precautions with his family members," writes the investigating judge, "and sometimes to keep the mail, especially outgoing mail, as a reminder of the countless tasks that were submitted to him."
A mistake that his sister Rosalia also committed, who, as stated in the precautionary measure, “culpably avoided destroying some of the notes received from her brother or, in any case, transcribed their contents on handwritten notes and hidden in her home in Castelvetrano and in her country house in Contrada Strasatti di Campobello di Mazara”.
These errors allowed the Carabinieri to acquire "very valuable evidence from which they could document with certainty the role of intermediary and faithful executor of the fugitive's orders carried out by the woman over the course of several years".
Article published on March 3, 2023 - 13pm
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