Overview
- Italian media report that Santapaola died on March 2 while serving multiple life sentences in custody in Milan.
- Before his 1993 arrest he was widely regarded as the Cosa Nostra’s number two and a close ally of Salvatore “Totò” Riina during the violent 1980s power struggles.
- Investigators identified him as one of the organizers of the 1992 assassinations of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.
- He was captured after eleven years on the run when a special unit found him sleeping in a farmhouse in Mazzarrone near Catania, and he did not resist.
- He remained incarcerated for more than 30 years under the restrictive 41bis regime intended to cut off communication by top mafia and terrorist inmates.