What will be the “next day” of Italy’s biggest criminal organization when its leader and core are arrested?

This is one of the key questions that concerns both the police and the forensic scientists who have been investigating the movements, hierarchy and methods of Cosa Nostra for years.

And while many consider the mafia organization to be all-powerful, experts see it as a troubled criminal group that faces a number of difficulties, including competition in the highly lucrative drug market.

“Messina Denaro was the last godfather and he represented all the secrets of Cosa Nostra. This is the end of the myth and now the organization will have to deal with it,” said Anna Sergi, an organized crime expert at the University of Essex in England.

At the same time, while Cosa Nostra retains control of Sicily and the ability to control the local economy, the drug trade is now controlled by the Calabria-based Drangheta.

Alfonso Sabella, a former anti-mafia judge, said that the Cosa Nostra is the third largest criminal group in Italy after the Drangheta and the mafia organization in the city of Fozza.

Who will be in charge now?

At the same time, the mafia organization has yet to solve the problem. Who will be the starter after Denaro’s arrest?

Palermo’s chief prosecutor, Maurizio de Lucia, stated that while Denaro led his hometown of Trapani, he was never the “only” leader of Cosa Nostra.

Previous leaders of the mafia organization were Salvatore “Toto” Riina and Bernardo Provenzano, who went into hiding for decades before being captured. Both men died in prison, Riina in 2017 and Provenzano a year earlier.

Source: Reuters.