Do you realize that if they lied about the asset seizure amounts, you realize how many potential lawsuits that would be? You would hear outcries from the families, they would all band together and point out the lies which would work in their favor. To answer your question more specifically, the asset seizures oftentimes entails whole economic empires under some squeaky clean Mafia-controlled businessman or entrepreneur. They also involve dozens of suspects, and range from bank accounts to entire business empires as I said above, to multiple cars, pieces of jewelry, real estate, the list goes on and on. No it's not farfetched at all for the asset seizures to run into the billions of euros. Last but not least, you don't last multiple decades "on the run" as a super notorious and high-profile Mafia superboss like Matteo Messina Denaro and not have access to VAST financial resources and political connections. So no it's not farfetched at all.
I think that puts the amount of money that the mafia has at their fingertips in perspective. If they are not even close to being broken down by getting such a large amount of asset seized, there’s really no telling how much money some of these families have.
In your research, have you found any American mobsters who can compare in terms of money brought in during the pizza connection era? DEA agent Frank Panessa said that he knew of one group that brought $1 million a day into one small apartment in New York.
