Yahoo – AFP,
Ella Ide, 22 July 2015
 |
Italian
police arrest an alleged mafia member in Rome, on February 10, 2015
(AFP
Photo/Filippo Monteforte)
|
Rome (AFP)
- Italian police said Wednesday they had seized assets worth two billion euros
($2.2 billion) belonging to a powerful organised crime syndicate, in the latest
sting against the mafia.
The assets
snatched from the 'Ndrangheta mafia, which controls much of Europe's cocaine
trade, included more than 1,500 betting shops, 82 online gambling sites and
almost 60 companies, as well as numerous properties, the police said.
Prosecutors
issued arrest warrants for 28 people suspected of running the gambling empire
and placed 23 others either under house arrest or ordered them to check in with
the police.
The crew is
believed to have been headed by mobster Mario Gennaro, who made his way up
through the mob in the southern region of Calabria from local to regional chief
because of the gambling ring's success.
The
'Ndrangheta is considered the most powerful crime syndicate in Italy, having
surpassed Sicily's Cosa Nostra and the Naples-based Camorra thanks to the
wealth it has amassed as the principal importer and wholesaler of cocaine
produced in Latin America and smuggled into Europe via north Africa and
southern Italy.
Profits
from the trade, which is worth billions, were laundered through the gambling
empire.
The gang
"recycled an enormous amount of 'dirty' money through the use of gaming
accounts assigned to willing or unwitting people", police said in a
statement.
"They
bypassed the laws governing this sector, accumulating significant profits that
were then reinvested in the acquisition of new companies and licences to
further expand their activities."
 |
Italian
police escort an alleged member of the N'Drangheta mafia after his 2010
arrest
in Corigliano Calabro (AFP Photo/Mario Tosti)
|
Eleven of
the companies seized were based abroad, in Austria, Malta, Romania and Spain.
'Serious
blow'
Interior
Minister Angelino Alfano described the sting in Reggio Calabria as "a
serious blow to the 'Ndrangheta".
The name
'Ndrangheta comes from the Greek for courage or loyalty and the organisation's
tight clan-based structure has made it hard to penetrate.
In a
triumph for anti-mafia hunters, dozens of alleged mobsters linked to the group
were detained at the end of last year in and around Milan, Italy's business
capital, on charges of criminal association and extortion.
Police
released secretly-filmed footage of men undergoing initiation into
"Santa" (holy) membership, whereby promoted mobsters swore allegiance
to their new "wise brothers" and took an "oath of poison"
under which they vow to kill themselves should they ever betray fellow clan
members.
A separate
sting in January led to the seizure of a notebook written in a
hieroglyphic-style code which detailed the initiation rites and the
'Ndrangheta's hierarchical structure from "piciotto" (foot soldier)
up to Godfather.
It also
detailed the clan's own mystical account of how its structure and "code of
honour" came into being as a result of three knights landing on an island
off Sicily after being banished from Spain for avenging the honour of their
raped sister.
The
gambling operation came just two weeks after authorities seized goods worth 1.6
billion euros from a Sicilian mafia family, which included 33 companies,
hundreds of houses, villas and buildings, 80 bank accounts, 40 insurance
policies and over 40 vehicles.
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