ROME, May 28, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Italy said Thursday it was seizing assets worth more than 200 million euros ($232 million) belonging to late mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro in an operation involving a string of offshore territories.

Police said in a statement the assets had been amassed since the 1980s "in the interests of Matteo Messina Denaro", who was captured in 2023 after 30 years on the run and died in prison the same year.

Police said assets were being seized in Andorra, the Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Monaco, Spain and Switzerland, as well as Italy.

It said three people had been arrested in the probe.

Messina Denaro was one of the most ruthless bosses in Cosa Nostra, the real-life Sicilian crime syndicate depicted in the Godfather movies.

He was convicted of involvement in the murder of anti-Mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in 1992 and for deadly bombings in Rome, Florence and Milan in 1993.

One of his six life sentences was for the kidnap and subsequent murder of the 12-year-old son of a witness in the Falcone case.

Messina Denaro disappeared in 1993 and spent the next 30 years on the run as the Italian state cracked down on the Sicilian mob.

But he remained the top name on Italy's most-wanted list and increasingly became a figure of legend.

It was his decision to seek treatment for cancer that led to his capture. He was arrested on January 16, 2023, when he visited a clinic in Palermo.

He was found to have been staying near his hometown of Castelvetrano in western Sicily.

The arrest may have brought some relief for his victims but the mob boss always maintained his silence.

In interviews after being arrested, Messina Denaro even denied he was a member of the Cosa Nostra.

He was jailed in L'Aquila, where he continued treatment in his cell, but was moved to hospital in August that year, under heavy security.

He died on September 25, 2023.