Italian police on Monday searched the
home of the former lover of Matteo Messina Denaro, the
30-year-old Mafia superboss recently caught at a Palermo cancer
clinic after 30 years on the run.
The house of Maria Mesi is in Bagheria , about 10km east of
Palermo, some way from Messina Denaro's fief in the western city
of Trapani.
Police also searched the home of Mesi's brother, Francesco.
Both have been investigated in the past for helping the boss
evade justice for so long.
Francesco Mesi plea-bargained a suspended sentence for this
offence.
Maria Mesi was arrested on June 14 2000 and was charged with
renting a flat near palermo with two other persons in which
Messina Denaro, who went missing in 1993, allegedly hid out.
She was convicted in first and second instance of favouring the
mafia, but the supreme Court of Cassation scrubbed the
aggravating factor of mafia conspiracy because she was
romantically involved with the fugitive superboss.
Police have found three hideouts used by the boss in Campobello
di Mazara, a town near Trapani.
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