Italy seizes €20m in assets from Mafia clan

File picture: Daniele Bennati/AP

File picture: Daniele Bennati/AP

Published Feb 23, 2017

Share

Rome – Italian police on Thursday seized assets worth €20 million (about R270 million) from a renowned clan of the Neapolitan Camorra Mafia.

Assets seized from the Mallardo clan include: 74 buildings and lots of land in the cities of Caserta, Naples and Rome; two construction companies; a real estate agency; and 15 vehicles.

"Seized assets from Camorra Mallardo Clan frontmen worth €20 million," Italy's finance guard tweeted.

Police uncovered what they called "a criminal holding company" that "accumulated enormous wealth" by laundering the Mallardo clan's illicit gains, mostly via the construction sector.

Police in November 2016 arrested several Mallardo clan relatives and affiliated businessmen, seizing €12 million in assets.

Investigators say the clan has extended beyond "traditional" mob activities such as loansharking and drug trafficking, and has muscled in on Campania bread distributors, dairies, and supermarkets.

The Mallardo clan plays a key role in the criminal balance of power in the region, according to a 2016 report by the National Anti-Mafia Investigations Directorate (DIA), an inter-agency unit set up to fight organized crime across the country.

dpa

Related Topics: