ROME (Reuters) – Italian police have discovered a haul of illegal drugs in packaging decorated with pictures of the faces of fearsome bosses from the Sicilian Mafia.
About 200,000 euros’ ($215,000) worth of hash, marijuana and cocaine were seized from a warehouse in Marsala, western Sicily, Carabinieri police said in a statement on Tuesday.
Among them, officers found packs of hash wrapped in cellophane and bearing pictures of Matteo Messina Denaro, Toto Riina and the fictional Godfather movie character.
Messina Denaro was the Sicilian mafia’s highest profile fugitive until his arrest in January, while Riina, who died in prison in 2017, was the Sicilian Mafia’s “boss of bosses” who was captured in 1993.
Both men have been sentenced to multiple life terms of a series of brutal murders, including, in Messina Denaro’s case, the killing of a teenager whose body was dissolved in acid.
Tuesday’s police raid took place in the Sicilian province of Trapani, where Messina Denaro is believed to have spent most of his time on the run, protected by family and clan loyalties.
A 28-year-old man with no criminal record, seen leaving the warehouse, was arrested on drug-related charges after officers found 50 grams of pure cocaine in one of his pockets.
($1 = 0.9310 euros)
(Reporting by Alvise Armellini; Editing by Keith Weir)
