Prosecutors apologised to the 54-year-old, named only as Mark, after he was arrested at gunpoint at a restaurant in the Hague and taken blindfolded to jail, Dutch public broadcaster NOS reports.

Authorities believed that Mark was actually 59-year-old Messina Denaro, who goes by the nickname Diabolik and is considered the Sicilian mafia’s “capo di tutti i capi” – boss of all bosses.

During Mark’s stay in the “extra security institution” (EBI), his lawyer Leon van Kleef told journalists: “If my client is a Sicilian mob boss, I am the Pope.”

He added: “It’s like a bad movie, a nightmare. You are having a quiet bite to eat then a bag over your head and you end up in the EBI.”