Italian police seize €1.6b in assets from mafia family | theSundaily

The Palermo division of Italy’s dedicated anti-mafia police, Direzione Investigativa Antimafia (DIA), said they had seized dozens of bank accounts, motor vehicles and 800 buildings, which include houses and factories.

It is suspected that the Mafia helped three brothers and two sisters -osvo they emperors of the business sector in the area close to the capital of Palermo Skulaih- to win contracts linked to the establishment of the Public Works sector.

The family, which also had links to jailed mob boss Salvatore “Toto” Riina, had reported alleged mafia extortion attempts against it in the past but police said they believe this to be a ruse aimed at covering the brothers’ tracks.

The family “succeeded over time in developing and imposing their group of companies, by using the method known as Siino, which consists of organising cartels of entrepreneurs with a view to the directed bidding for public tenders”.

RaiNews reported that the family were all occasional farm workers in the 1980s before becoming millionaires.

With the support of several anti-mafia groups, he strongly criticised the practice and evidence he gave has led to the arrest of several mafia chiefs in the region.

“Today’s seizure is certainly one of the biggest the DIA has carried out in its 20-year history”, vice chief of DIA operations Adelmo Lusi told a news conference.

In recent years, crime syndicates from Sicily and Naples have used the recession triggered by the global financial crisis to extend their reach northward from their traditional south roots.

Michelangelo Patane, a prosecutor in Sicily, noted: “In Italy it is more hard to manage the property seized from the mafia than it is to confiscate it”.