Strong clan loyalty, locals, helped mafia boss Messina Denaro stay hidden

FILE PHOTO: A screengrab taken from a video shows Matteo Messina Denaro the country's most wanted mafia boss being escorted out of a Carabinieri police station after he was arrested in Palermo, Italy, January 16, 2023. Carabinieri/Handout via REUTERS

PALERMO, Italy (Reuters) - When Salvatore Catalano discovered that mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro had lived just a short walk from his house in the western Sicilian town of Campobello di Mazara, he felt sick.

Catalano's brother, Agostino, was a policeman who died in a 1992 bomb that killed anti-mob magistrate Paolo Borsellino - a attack that prosecutors say Messina Denaro helped mastermind.