ROME, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- Matteo Messina Denaro, an Italian mafia superboss who was apprehended earlier this year after 30 years on the run, died on Monday at the age of 62 in a hospital in central Italy.

Messina Denaro spent nearly half his life as one of Italy's most wanted fugitives. He was caught in January after police were tipped off about his medical treatment for colon cancer in Sicily's capital Palermo.

The top boss of the Cosa Nostra organized crime ring had been convicted of involvement in dozens of murders, most notably the back-to-back assassinations of anti-Mafia magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in 1992.

In one of his most grisly crimes, Messina Denaro was found guilty in the death of a boy, the son of a former mafia hitman who flipped and became a witness against the organization to police.

Messina Denaro was in critical condition the entire time he was in police custody and was admitted to a high-security hospital in the central Italian region of Abruzzo a month ago. On Friday, he began to bleed internally and went into an irreversible coma, according to local media.

According to reports, he met with family members before losing consciousness. Enditem

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