An Italian mafia boss – who once claimed he could “fill a graveyard” with his enemies – has been found by Police after 30 years on the run.

Matteo Messina Denaro was visiting a private hospital in the Sicilian capital Palermo.

“Today, members of Carabinieri’s ROS and members of the GIS and the territorial commands of the Sicily region as part of investigations coordinated by the public prosecutor’s office of Palermo arrested fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro inside a health facility where he had gone to undergo clinical therapies,” Military Police Major General, Pasquale Angelosanto said.

Messina Denaro has been sentenced in absentia to a life term for his role in the 1992 murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.

He also faces a life sentence for his role in bomb attacks in Florence, Rome and Milan which killed 10 people the following year.

Messina Denaro is accused by prosecutors of being solely or jointly responsible for numerous other murders in the 1990s.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the arrest is “a great victory for the state that shows it never gives up in the face of the mafia”.