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Nine people arrested in Italy's anti-corruption operation

Xinhua, April 26, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Italian police on Tuesday arrested nine people in an anti-corruption operation in the southern Caserta province near Naples, local media reported.

A former mayor of the city of Santa Maria Capua Vetere was among those arrested, together with other public officials and some local businessmen, according to AGI news agency.

They were all variously charged with corruption, bid rigging, and fraud by false representation aggravated by alleged links to the powerful Casalesi clan which belongs to the Naples-based Camorra mob.

Prosecutors of regional Anti-Mafia District Directorate in Naples ordered the operation, which was carried out by Italy's finance police and military Carabinieri police.

The suspects allegedly rigged public contracts in the local public administration in order to favor the Casalesi family's business.

Biagio Di Muro, who had been mayor of Santa Maria Capua Vetere until December 2015, and businessman Alessandro Zagaria were brought to jail, while the other seven suspects were put to house arrest.

The entrepreneur was the only person additionally charged with mafia association, a major crime according to Italian penal code, La Repubblica newspaper also reported.

The probing especially focused on a restoration project carried out on a 19th century palace in Santa Maria Capua Vetere in recent years, and worth over 2 billion euros (2.26 billion U.S. dollars), AGI reported.

Those arrested would have paid bribes for up to 70,000 euros (79,000 U.S. dollars) so that a group of companies linked to the Casalesi clan could win the assignment of the public contract, AGI cited anti-mafia prosecutors as reporting. Endit