Facebook has been dragged into the hunt for one of the world’s most wanted Mafia figures Matteo Messina Denaro an alleged godfather in the Sicilian Mafia. He has been a fugitive since 1993 and is believed to currently be one of the top leaders of
He has been a fugitive since 1993 and is believed to currently be one of the top leaders of the mafia clan known as Cosa Nostra after arrests of former leaders Salvatore Lo Piccolo and Bernardo Provenzano. Italian authorities have seized billions of dollars in assets linked to Messina Denaro during the ongoing manhunt and made many arrests. Among those arrested was his sister Anna Patrizia Messina Denaro who has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for extortion and mafia association.
“Matteo Messina Denaro“
According to reports before she was arrested, she opened numerous Facebook accounts which she allegedly used to exchange messages with her brother. Authorities were monitoring her for some time and overheard her imprisoned husband ask her to seek instructions from the top on how to resolve a problem. But they found no signs that she used the traditional mafia system of “Pizzini” the passing of encrypted coded language on tiny scraps of paper. This led them to believe she must have been communicating using computers and that the mob is turning to more modern forms of contact like social media networks. Now a ruling by a Judge in California has forced Facebook to hand over extensive lists of private messages to and from her accounts.
Police hope to trace these messages to an IP address that may hold the key to the whereabouts of the infamous mobster.
