Italy: Over 200 million euros seized in operation against Cosa Nostra money laundering
The Italian Guardia di Finanza has seized assets and companies worth over 200 million euros in an investigation into the laundering of proceeds from drug trafficking linked to mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro.
Italy: Over 200 million euros seized in operation against Cosa Nostra money laundering
The Italian Guardia di Finanza announced on Thursday the seizure of assets and companies worth over 200 million euros as part of an investigation into the laundering of proceeds from drug trafficking linked to the late mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro.
Messina Denaro was arrested in 2023 after thirty years on the run for his role in Sicily's Cosa Nostra war against the State between the 1980s and 1990s, which included the murder of chief prosecutor Giovanni Falcone.
Nicknamed "U Siccu" (the thin one), he died of cancer a few months after his capture, leaving magistrates with the task of tracking down the proceeds of his criminal empire and those who had helped him evade justice.
The law enforcement authorities stated that the operation concluded a complex investigation that reconstructed a vast pool of assets generated by the reinvestment of drug trafficking proceeds accumulated since the 1980s across various European and other countries.
"We believe we have identified a significant portion of the investments made by the mafia, including abroad," said Palermo's chief prosecutor Maurizio de Lucia.
The son of a mafia boss, Messina Denaro came from the Sicilian town of Castelvetrano, near Trapani, and headed the local Cosa Nostra clan.
Closely linked to powerful boss Salvatore "Totò" Riina, he played a role in bombings in Florence, Rome and Milan that killed ten people in 1993 and was believed to be responsible for numerous murders in the 1990s.
Three people were arrested as part of the investigation, which involved locations including Switzerland, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands, but with the operational centre in Andorra, the small Pyrenean principality.
Police traced funds there to a woman from Campobello di Mazara, the Sicilian town where Messina Denaro had his last hideout, who had been married to a man with a criminal record for drug-related offences.
"Based on these findings, investigators began to suspect that the funds in Andorra were linked to drug trafficking," the statement read.
Prosecutors identified eight companies linked to the money laundering network: five in Spain, two in Gibraltar and one in the Cayman Islands. The group held a "very significant" stake in a Lebanese bank, as well as gold and luxury real estate.
Giovanni Melillo, Italy's national anti-mafia prosecutor, stressed the importance of targeting organised crime assets.
"It means continuing the process of dismantling necessary to prevent the emergence of structures once again capable of projecting, on a global scale, the full intimidatory power and economic influence of Cosa Nostra."
Source: Cyprus Mail
Source: Cyprus Mail