Anti-mafia investigators seize assets worth more than €200m from network of late mafia boss
Sicilian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro spent decades on the run before being arrested in 2023.
Authorities in Italy have seized more than €200m worth of assets, including villas, cars, and cash, as well as a plethora of other items from the network of Sicilian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro.
As per the BBC, it's believed the funds are the culmination of four decades of drug trafficking linked to the former head of the Cosa Nostra group. Messina Denaro died in 2023, following his arrest after more than three decades on the run. He had been sentenced to life for multiple murders, and had been convicted of kidnapping and killing a 12-year-old boy, who was the son of a mafia man who had become an informer.
Three people have been arrested and eight firms identified as part of the seizure, including real estate companies. Giovanni Melillo, head of the National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor's Office, said that the seizure "aims to prevent the reformation of a criminal organisation that existed until a few years ago."
"Seizing this wealth means continuing the disintegration process [of the criminal group] and the process of re-establishing structures capable of projecting the full intimidating power and economic and social influence of the Cosa Nostra on a global scale," he said.
