Traces of arrested mafia boss Messina Denaro led him to Switzerland

In search of the “treasure” of arrested mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, Italy demands more legal aid from Switzerland. There are other monuments in Switzerland.

Henry Habger/ch media

In July 1993, Matteo Messina Denaro, president of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, disappeared from the scene. He hid in his area. Only in January 2023 were the Italian police and judiciary able to locate and arrest him in Palermo.

The assets, allegedly amounting to several billion euros, which Messina Denaro has held over the years, are still hidden and hidden. For years, there have been indications that Switzerland must play a significant role in this, and that money has been and continues to be invested and stashed here. But until now, investigators have not been able to track down the Sicilian “treasure”.

Half a year after the arrest of Messina Denaro, the anti-mafia prosecutor in Palermo is making a new attempt. Upon request, the Swiss Federal Prosecutor’s Office confirms reports that a new application for legal aid was received from Palermo this year and is currently “in process”.

According to a spokeswoman, the first request for legal aid from the Palermo Public Prosecutor in the Messina Denaro case was completed in 2015. The Federal Public Prosecutor does not want to disclose more. It only said that it “is not currently conducting any criminal proceedings” in this context.

That was different in 2014. At that time, she filed a criminal case against unknown persons for money laundering. In particular, it was about the mafia boss Domenico Cimonelli, born in Locarno in 1967, who is said to have invested money in Switzerland for Messina Denaro. Criminal proceedings were halted shortly thereafter due to a lack of evidence.

Meanwhile, the ongoing investigations by the Italian authorities are bringing to light more and more links from Messina Denarau to Switzerland. It indicates that there is a strong network in our country.

Rent from a couple from Baden AG

It turns out that an apartment in Campobello di Mazara, which Messina Denaro had used as a hideout until a few months before his arrest, belonged to a couple who had lived in Switzerland for decades: according to Italian reports, in Baden AG. The couple was questioned in Switzerland for legal aid, and it seems they were able to prove their innocence. She had no idea who had been renting the apartment under the name Andrea Bonafede for €250 a month since 2007.

The apartment was rented by relatives of the Swiss. However, the investigators seem to have doubts whether these relatives also did not know who the tenant was.

Close friend of Schlieren ZH

A very close friend of Messina Denaro, apparently according to the records even his lover, is originally from Switzerland: the woman was born in 1975 in Schlieren ZH. She and her husband were important assistants to Messina Denaro; They enabled him to live inconspicuously in the town of Campobello di Mazara until just before his arrest. The couple is now in custody. Sometimes she lodged the chief in his house and made sure the coast was clean as he went in and out. The woman was also accused of playing Messina Denaro’s “keyboard” so that he could communicate with other people who were particularly close to him.

The woman, who was born near Zurich, belonged more or less to the family of Messina Denaro. She married the nephew of Leonardo Bonafede, longtime boss of Campobello di Mazara. Bonafide, who died in 2020 at the age of 88, was considered Messina Denaro’s closest confidant. According to witnesses, the two directors and their families trusted each other unconditionally.

Investigators dig deeper – Omertà is also in Switzerland

Italian investigators are digging deeper and want to know more about ties to Switzerland. This should not be met with much joy everywhere in this country. Anyone who tries to talk to Swiss relatives or acquaintances from the Messina Denarau region these days will encounter a wall of silence: “I don’t know anything, I won’t say anything.”

Once again it becomes clear that omerta, the symbol of mafia silence, also applies to us.

Another not really clear path leads to Basel. A local antiquities dealer, born in Sicily, is said to have been supplied by Messina Denaro’s father Francesco, known as Don Ciccio, with large quantities of antiquities stolen from the robber’s graves in Sicily. According to the mafia hitman Giovanni Brusca and other witnesses, Matteo Messina Denaro later took on this business. (aargauerzeitung.ch)

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