Known as the ‘last godfather’ of the Italian mafia, Matteo Messina Denaro boasted a criminal empire worth \u00a3172 million and claimed “I have filled a cemetery single-handedly”.<\/p>\n
The mobster moved between 22 luxury resorts, including some in the gangster paradise Costa del Sol, which he owned, and had \u00a38.6million in cash and 26lb of gold ingots.<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsign up for Sun<\/span> Newsletter\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThank you!\t\t\t\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Denaro spent three decades on the run before finally being captured in 2023 during cancer treatment, months after which he died at the age of 61.<\/p>\n This week, Italian police shared video footage of them seizing “huge amounts of capital” from the late Cosa Nostra chief through a series of daring raids.<\/p>\n Officers wearing riot gear were filmed raiding palm-lined properties, using drones, helicopters and thermal scanners to uncover hidden caves that hid ill-gotten gains.<\/p>\n The dacoit’s corporate holding companies, securities portfolios and eight offshore enterprises used for property investment and asset management were also discovered. <\/p>\n student union<\/p>\n UK students are being held ‘hostage’ in blackmail plot inside scam ring<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n hell hole <\/p>\n The animal that beheaded the mother and the Ripper was stabbed because of its habit of defecation… My life with Britain’s most evil people<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Denaro, who ran the real-life Sicilian crime syndicate depicted in The Godfather films, had a lengthy rap sheet and was sentenced to six life sentences before his death. <\/p>\n Now as authorities struggle to recover his criminal fortune, including “huge sums reinvested in the legal economy”, we look at other notorious ‘Godfathers’ and their vast empires.<\/p>\n At the peak of ‘King of Cocaine’ Pablo Escobar’s reign, it has been claimed that he was earning $420 million every week from the trade \u2013 around $22 billion a year.<\/p>\n There was so much cash that it was impossible for his cartel to launder it quickly, so he had to resort to hiding it in unlikely places, including abandoned warehouses. <\/p>\n A farmer found $600 million in cash inside a blue plastic barrel while digging an irrigation ditch, and Escobar’s nephew found $18 million, satellite phones and a gold pen inside a wall of his family home. <\/p>\n The kingpin’s brother Robert, who was the cartel’s chief accountant, wrote in his memoirs: “Pablo was making so much that every year we would write off 10 percent of the money because rats would eat it in storage or it would be water damaged or lost.”<\/p>\n To keep the pile of cash together he had to spend $2,500 a month on rubber bands. <\/p>\n Sensationally, the Medell\u00edn cartel chief, who supplied 80 percent of the world’s cocaine, once lit a fire with $2 million in crumpled bank notes to keep his daughter warm while hiding in the mountains. <\/p>\n One of the strangest legacies of Escobar \u2013 who was shot by police and military while attempting to escape from a rooftop in 1993 \u2013 brought the hippo to Colombia.<\/p>\n There are now believed to be 200 wild animals, known as ‘cocaine hippos’, descended from animals illegally smuggled out of Africa for his private zoo.<\/p>\n The cocaine kingpin also had elephants, zebras, ostriches, giraffes and camels on his 20 square kilometer estate, which also had a bullring, a private airport and a collection of hovercraft. <\/p>\n The expansive residence and grounds have since been converted into a theme park, named Hacienda Napoles.<\/p>\n Escobar also had a large stake in the Bahamas island of Normans Cay, which became known as a “hedonistic playground” but also hosted a warehouse for drug trafficking. <\/p>\n Carlos Toro, who visited Party Island, claimed to have been sent to pick up naked women and that his party later led to a wild, mischievous escapade. <\/p>\n He added: “It was like Sodom and Gomorrah. Drugs, sex, no police. You made the rules.”<\/p>\n Known as ‘The Dapper Don’, Gambino crime family leader John Gotti refused to be seen in public in anything other than tailored Italian suits, which cost $2,000 a time.<\/p>\n He was known to change outfits by Brioni, Kitaone and Ermenegildo Zegna several times a day and wear them with matching silk ties.<\/p>\n\n
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n‘Hedonistic Playground’<\/h2>\n
white house mansion<\/h2>\n