Italian authorities have seized assets and companies worth more than €200 million ($232 million) in a major investigation into an international money-laundering network linked to late Sicilian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro.
Italy’s finance police announced on Thursday that the operation targeted proceeds from decades of alleged drug trafficking connected to the former head of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra crime syndicate.
Messina Denaro, one of Italy’s most wanted fugitives, was arrested in 2023 after spending 30 years on the run. He was accused of playing a central role in the Cosa Nostra’s violent campaign against the Italian state during the 1980s and 1990s, including involvement in the killing of anti-mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone.
Nicknamed “U Siccu”, meaning “the skinny one” in Sicilian dialect, Messina Denaro died from cancer months after his arrest. Since then, prosecutors have focused on dismantling the financial network that supported his criminal empire and enabled him to evade capture for decades.
Investigators said the probe traced assets linked to the reinvestment of drug trafficking profits accumulated since the 1980s across several European and non-European jurisdictions.
“We believe we have identified a significant portion of the investments made by the mafia, including abroad,” Palermo chief prosecutor Maurizio de Lucia said.
The investigation involved locations including Switzerland, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands, but focused largely on Andorra.
Police said funds in Andorra were traced to a woman from Campobello di Mazara, the Sicilian town where Messina Denaro maintained his final hideout. She had reportedly been married to a man with previous drug-related convictions.
According to investigators, the findings strengthened suspicions that the assets originated from narcotics trafficking operations tied to organised crime networks.
Prosecutors identified eight companies allegedly connected to the laundering scheme, including five based in Spain, two in Gibraltar and one in the Cayman Islands.
Authorities said the network controlled a substantial stake in a Lebanese bank, alongside gold reserves and luxury real estate holdings.
Messina Denaro, who was born into a mafia family in the western Sicilian town of Castelvetrano near Trapani, was considered one of the most powerful figures within the Cosa Nostra. Closely associated with notorious mafia boss Salvatore Riina, also known as “Totò Riina,” he was linked to the 1993 bomb attacks in Florence, Rome and Milan that killed 10 people.
Italy’s national anti-mafia prosecutor Giovanni Melillo said targeting mafia wealth remained essential to weakening organised crime structures.
“It means continuing the dismantling process needed to prevent the emergence of structures once again capable of projecting, on a global scale, Cosa Nostra’s full intimidating power and economic influence,” he said.
The operation marks one of the largest recent financial crackdowns linked to the Sicilian mafia and highlights the increasingly international nature of organised crime investigations.
U.S. Donald Trump has said he has cancelled planned strikes on Iranian oil and gas ports announced earlier on Thursday. Trump said he made the decisio...
Britain's Defence Minister, John Healey, and Armed Forces Minister, Al Carns, have resigned from UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government over a...
Spanish football club Real Madrid has appointed José Mourinho as its new manager. The 63-year-old nicknamed “the special one” returns to the hel...
Pakistan says it has killed 26 militants in strikes on terrorist hideouts along the Afghan border, marking the most significant escalation between the...
Canada’s Privacy Commissioner has found that xAI’s Grok chatbot and its parent company X Corp. violated federal privacy law by launching an AI ima...
U.S. Donald Trump has said he has cancelled planned strikes on Iranian oil and gas ports announced earlier on Thursday. Trump said he made the decision after senior leadership in Iran agreed to peace talks.
Britain's Defence Minister, John Healey, and Armed Forces Minister, Al Carns, have resigned from UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government over a disagreement about defence spending.
Spanish football club Real Madrid has appointed José Mourinho as its new manager. The 63-year-old nicknamed “the special one” returns to the helm of Spain’s most successful football club, more than a decade since his last stint as the team's manager.
Canada’s Privacy Commissioner has found that xAI’s Grok chatbot and its parent company X Corp. violated federal privacy law by launching an AI image-generation tool without adequate safeguards, enabling the creation and distribution of non-consensual sexualised deepfakes.
Mexico and South Africa meet in Thursday’s World Cup opener in Mexico City, with both teams approaching the match from very different positions but facing their own pressures.
Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry says 19 citizens have been repatriated following a deadly drone attack on two cargo ships in the Sea of Azov on 5 June.
The Pakistani city of Karachi is struggling under severe heat and humidity as the country enters a prolonged heatwave period. The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has warned of above-normal temperatures across much of the country between 7 and 12 June.
Ukraine's military said it struck a Russian "shadow fleet" tanker in the Black Sea as part of ongoing efforts to disrupt Moscow's energy and logistics networks. The move underscores Kyiv's focus on targeting maritime assets it says are used to bypass sanctions on Russian oil exports.
U.S. forces say they have completed strikes on Iranian military sites near the Strait of Hormuz. Iran responded with missile attacks on an American base in Jordan, marking a sharp escalation in tensions between the two sides.
More than a third of Belgium’s population now has a foreign background, according to new figures released by the national statistics office, Statbel. The data show that around 4.34 million of the country’s nearly 11.7 million residents do not have an entirely Belgian background.
Fuel stations across the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula ran dry on Thursday as Ukraine stepped up attacks on supply routes to the region.
Britain's Defence Minister, John Healey, and Armed Forces Minister, Al Carns, have resigned from UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government over a disagreement about defence spending.
Spanish football club Real Madrid has appointed José Mourinho as its new manager. The 63-year-old nicknamed “the special one” returns to the helm of Spain’s most successful football club, more than a decade since his last stint as the team's manager.
Pakistan says it has killed 26 militants in strikes on terrorist hideouts along the Afghan border, marking the most significant escalation between the neighbouring countries since a China-brokered diplomatic effort helped ease tensions earlier this year.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment