The Double Life of Matteo Messina Denaro: Mafia Boss at the Poker Table

 For months, while law enforcement searched for him across the Country, Matteo Messina Denaro spent at least one evening a week at the poker table. This latest surprising discovery, made by the Carabinieri of the ROS and the Prosecutor's Office of Palermo who arrested the fugitive in January 2023, confirms that the mafia boss managed to lead a normal life despite being on the run. Messina Denaro, here is the Instagram and Facebook profile of the boss: he called himself Francesco Averna and was a doctor from Milan.

In the mobile phones seized from Lorena Lanceri, one of Messina Denaro's lovers sentenced to 13 years and 4 months for external complicity in a mafia association, a group chat on WhatsApp titled "pokerino beverino" was found. Messina Denaro participated in it, using the name Francesco Salsi, along with other people who attended the evenings. Investigators are trying to understand if and which of the players present at the games were aware of the boss's true identity, who, however, the woman had introduced to the group as the doctor Francesco Salsi. In the chat, there are numerous messages that the mafia boss exchanged with the participants with amused comments on the evenings spent together. We are in 2021. The players met, when Covid restrictions were not in force, often at the home of Lanceri and her husband Emanuele Bonafede.

In the "pokerino beverino" group, there is a photo sent to one of the participants, absent that day, in which it reads "the doctor tonight is destroyed", a comment perhaps related to the fact that Messina Denaro had lost. Attached is a photo of the godfather with his head down and hands on his face. A pose to show his discouragement and at the same time a way to cover his face and avoid the circulation of his image, say the investigators.