Sister of Italy's top mafia boss Matteo Denaro arrested after discovery of secret notes

After police searched the home of the sister of Italy's most recently imprisoned high-ranking mob boss, also known as "the last godfather of the Sicilian mafia," she was taken into custody on Friday when they discovered 'pizzini', which were notes written by the boss himself that contained his instructions, reported The Guardian.

Investigators have reported that Rosalia Messina Denaro, the sister of Matteo Messina Denaro, who was once Italy's most wanted man until his capture on January 16 this year, had aided her brother in evading authorities for 30 years. In addition, she acted as the "cashier" for the "family" on her brother's behalf, while also managing the transmission network for the pizzini, which allowed the mafia boss to maintain communication with his organisation throughout his lengthy period as a fugitive.

“Rosalia Messina Denaro was a person of absolute trust of the boss,” said Alfredo Montalto, the judge who ordered her arrest. “She managed the network of pizzini through which Denaro delivered his orders to the other associates.”

Carabinieri discovered several pizzini

During the search of the house in Castelvetrano, the hometown of the mafia boss on the southwest coast of Sicily, Carabinieri discovered several pizzini, some of which contained the boss's personal beliefs and perspective on life. Denaro, who took pride in being a Sicilian mafia boss, viewed himself as a scapegoat, someone who was unjustly persecuted by the justice system and the state.

“Being indicted for being a member of the mafia, at this point, I consider it an honour,” Matteo Denaro wrote in his own hand in one of the pizzini found by the police in his sister’s house. “We have been persecuted like we were scoundrels, treated as if we were not part of the human race, we have become an ethnic group to erase.”

“They buried our land with this lie. We, the evil, they … the good,” Denaro wrote. “Every time there is a new arrest, more and more people suffer for this land. Every time they arrest someone, more and more people join our community that is not willing to accept this injustice. This is what we are, and one day, I am convinced, all of this will be recognised and history will give us back what they took from us in life.”

The pizzini, which were concealed in the hollow of a chair in the home of Denaro's sister, were intended for various individuals, including individuals who were purportedly part of the mafia, some of whom were known by nicknames such as Condor, Cherry, Parmesan, and Apple.

In addition, Rosalia Denaro was found to be concealing a pizzino that contained a detailed note about her brother's health status. Matteo Denaro was captured at a private clinic in Palermo, where he had been receiving treatment for a tumor under the false identity of Andrea Bonafede.

Denaro is currently being held in a maximum-security prison located in the central Italian city of L'Aquila, where he received his first round of chemotherapy.