Reports indicate that Messina Denaro, the boss of the Italian mafia, is currently in a coma.

According to reports from Italian media, Matteo Messina Denaro, a mafia leader who was apprehended in January after evading capture for 30 years, is currently in a state of coma.

Doctors at the hospital in L’Aguila, Italy, have announced that Messina Denaro, who is suffering from colon cancer, will not be able to recover. As per his wish, the medical team has ceased life-sustaining treatments.

In early August, the 61-year-old head of Sicily’s Cosa Nostra mafia underwent intestinal surgery at L’Aguila’s San Salvatore hospital. While the operation was successful, his advanced colon cancer caused an irreversible deterioration in his health, Italian media quoted sources as saying.

According to Italian news agency ANSA, Messina Denaro experienced significant bleeding on Friday and subsequently entered an “irreversible coma.”

30 years on the run

In 1993, Messina Denaro went into hiding and has since been regarded as the most sought-after fugitive in Italy.

In January, law enforcement located him and apprehended him at a cancer clinic in Palermo that was privately owned. He was receiving treatment there using an alias.

Messian Denaro was sentenced to life in prison for his role in a series of grisly murders and deadly bombings in Italy. Among other crimes, he is blamed for the 1992 car bombings that killed leading anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.

Besides the killings, he faced allegations of participating in mafia assaults that occurred in Rome, Milan, and Florence in 1993, resulting in the deaths of a combined total of 10 individuals.

Messina Denaro was considered a close confidante of former mafia crime bosses Bernardo Provenzano and Salvatore “Toto” Riina.

dh/nm (AFP, dpa)