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Italian Authorities Seize 200 Million Euros in Assets Tied to Late Mafia Boss
Italian police seized more than 200 million euros in cash, gold, property and companies linked to the late Matteo Messina Denaro’s drug-trafficking network. Anti-mafia prosecutors said the action targets the Sicilian Mafia’s financial infrastructure.
May 28, 7:20 PM·1m read1 source
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Italian authorities seized more than 200 million euros ($232 million) in assets connected to the late mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro’s drug-trafficking network. The seizures, announced Thursday, included more than 12 kilograms of gold bars, millions in cash, premium watches and about 20 luxury properties.
More than 150 financial police officers conducted searches in Italy and in Andorra, Gibraltar, the Cayman Islands, Switzerland, Lebanon, Monaco and Spain.
Authorities arrested three people as part of the probe into a decades-long money trail. Italy’s national anti-mafia prosecutor Giovanni Melillo said the seizures are part of efforts to dismantle the Sicilian Mafia’s economic infrastructure. Messina Denaro was arrested in January 2023 after three decades as a fugitive and died in a prison hospital nine months later.
He had been convicted in absentia of dozens of murders, including the 1992 bombings that killed prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.
