EUR 2 billion worth of assets were seized on Wednesday by the Italian police, which issued also 41 arrest warrants on gambling companies run by ‘Ndragheta mafia organisation, two of them in Romania, Agerpres informs quoting AFP and Reuters.
Allegedly the firms were used for money laundering.
Italy’s mafia groups, including the ‘Ndrangheta from the southern region of Calabria, the Camorra from Naples and Sicily’s Cosa Nostra, have strengthened their grip on southern Italy’s economy and spread to the richer north during a three-year economic slump.
Among the assets seized there are 1,500 betting shops, 82 gambling websites, 45 Italian companies and 11 foreign firms, as well as ‘innumerable’ property assets, the financial police said in a statement.
Apart from the firms run from Malta, two were in Spain, two in Romania and one in Austria.