Man arrested for letting undercover Mafia boss 'use his identity to buy clothes'
A man whose identity was used by Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro to stay under the radar has been arrested in Sicily.
Andrea Bonafede, a surveyor from Campobello di Mazara in the province of Trapani, was caught by Italian police yesterday and is accused of being associated with the Mafia.
He was arrested a week after Messina Denaro, who was on the run for 30 years, was captured at a private clinic in Palermo, the capital of Sicily.
The Mafia boss was using the false name Andrea Bonafede to undergo cancer treatment without revealing his real identity.
Matteo Messina Denaro was arrested in Palermo last week (ITALIAN CARABINIERI PRESS OFFICE)When he was caught by police, Messina Denaro was using an official identity card with Bonafede's name but his own photo.
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Bonafede's arrest warrant accuses him of helping the 60-year-old mob boss carry out his role within the Mafia, allowing him to elude law enforcement and get access to national healthcare using a false identity.
Investigators also suspect that Bonafede received €20,000 (£17,600) from Messina Denaro to buy a house in western Sicily that the mobster used as one of his hideouts in the final months of being on the run.
Bonafede also confessed that he gave the Mafia boss his credit card, allowing him to buy designer clothes and enjoy restaurant dinners.
The mobster used Bonafede's identity to stay under the radar (Carabinieri via Getty Images)He also helped Messina Denaro buy the Alfa Romeo Giulietta he travelled in, which was officially the property of Bonafede's 87-year-old disabled mother, reports Rai News.
Bonafede's former partner said she was unaware of his links to Messina Denaro and broke up with him as soon as she learnt about them.
She told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera: "I left him as soon as I found out, I hadn't noticed anything.
The Mafia boss was finally caught after 30 years on the run (Uncredited/AP/REX/Shutterstock)"Andrea hid everything from me. [It's as if] a bomb exploded in my house."
Messina Denaro, whose nickname was Diabolik, was tried and sentenced to life in jail in absentia in 2002 over numerous murders including the 1992 killing of anti-Mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.
The "godfather" of Castelvetrano, who once bragged about "filling a cemetery by himself", was wearing a brown leather jacket and white skull cap and his trademark tinted glasses when he was arrested on January 16.
Forensic police at the scene where Messina Denaro's car was located in Campobello di Mazara (Carmelo Sucameli/ANSA via ZUMA Press/REX/Shutterstock)After being asked by officers his name at the Palermo clinic, he arrogantly said: "My name is Matteo Messina Denaro."
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He was then dragged out of the clinic and other patients, who had been kept outside the facility for hours, clapped as the boss was taken into custody.
Following the arrest, Palermo attorney Maurizio de Lucia said: "Today is a historic day - we dedicate it to all victims of Mafia."
Bonafede helped the Mafia boss buy a house Messina Denaro used as one of his hideouts (LaPresse/REX/Shutterstock)He added: "We are very proud of the work carried out this morning which concludes a long and very delicate job.
"It is a debt that the Republic owed to the victims of the Mafia which we have paid off in part.
"Capturing a dangerous fugitive without violence or handcuffs is an important sign for a democratic country."
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