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Italy seizes assets worth 60 mln euros in anti-mafia operation

Xinhua, December 10, 2015 Adjust font size:

Italian police carried out a major operation against a powerful mafia clan near Naples on Thursday, seizing assets worth some 60 million euros (65.7 million U.S. dollars), local media reported.

Some 28 people were overall targeted by arrest warrants, including several public officers, two local politicians, and entrepreneurs, Ansa News Agency said.

They were all variously charged with mafia association, external links to the mafia, money laundering, extortion, fraud, public bid rigging, and other related crimes.

The suspects allegedly gave support to and share business with the Casalesi clan, which belongs to the Naples-based Camorra mob and is known to be led by jailed boss Michele Zagaria, according to prosecutors of regional Anti-Mafia District Directorate (DDA) in Naples.

Police arrested 24 people, and were still searching for 4 suspects on Thursday.

Among those on the run were the current mayor of Trentola Ducenta, a small town in the Caserta province, north of Naples, and a local entrepreneur owning a mall there worth around 60 million euros.

Police seized the large shopping center, known as the "Jambo", because prosecutors believed it was managed on behalf of the Casalesi clan.

The mall is one of the largest in the whole Campania region, and "it grew up to the current value in latest years thanks to the political and business power of Michele Zagaria," the judge wrote in the arrest warrant decree, according to Il Mattino newspaper in Naples.

Such "economic strength" was a main financial source for the Casalesi clan.

The entrepreneur who owns the mall was allegedly "a caretaker of the money belonging to the Zagaria family, and in charge of managing political and business relationships on behalf of boss Michele Zagaria," local media reports cited prosecutors as saying.

Michele Griffo, the mayor of the town where the mall is based, was charged with external links to the mafia.

He allegedly issued licenses and authorized public tenders to meet the specific needs of the Casalesi and local entrepreneurs linked to them, in return for support during local elections.

The former mayor, some current and former councillors, the head of the technical office, and other public officers in the town were also among the arrested with similar charges.

They would all be part of a "complex criminal system" that helped in laundering the money of the Camorra clan, according to anti-mafia prosecutors. Endit