Huge operation against online gambling, 68 arrests in Reggio Calabria, Catania and Bari. It´s the new frontier in the fight against the mafia. Assets worth a billion were seized, the famous clans from Calabria, Puglia and Catania control the business of 4.5 billion euros.
From the first light of dawn, an imposing international police operation is underway, coordinated by the National Anti-Mafia and Counter-terrorism Directorate, which sees jointly employed by the Guardia di Finanza, the
State Police , the Carabinieri and the Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate in the capture of 68 criminals. organized in Puglia, Calabria and Sicily and in the seizure of assets for 1 billion euro in Italy and in many foreign countries.
The alleged offenses are all attributable to the mafia association, the fraudulent transfer of values, to money laundering and self-laundering, to the illegal collection of online bets and the related fraudulent subtraction of the tax revenues from the relative earnings. The ongoing repressive activity comes to the end of complex investigations, delegated by the District Anti-Mafia Directorates. of the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Bari, Reggio Calabria and Catania and regards criminal groups that had read and controlled, with mafia methods, the lucrative market of illegal collection of bets on sporting events and not, for a volume of bets greater than 4.5 billions of euros on various online platforms managed by criminal associations. The substantial accumulated earnings, monitored by the Guardia di Finanza, they were then reinvested in real estate assets and financial positions abroad, in the name of persons, foundations and companies, screened with the complicity of a comfortable name. The seizure orders in Italy and abroad are being implemented on these assets, thanks also to the fundamental collaboration of the Authorities
Judicial authorities from Austria, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, the Netherlands, Curaçao, Serbia, Albania, Spain and Malta, as well as the Eurojust Cooperation Unit. Details of the operation will be announced during a press conference at 11 am, at the offices of the National Anti-Mafia and Counter-terrorism Directorate, in via Giulia, 52 in Rome, in the presence of the National Prosecutor and the District Prosecutors Bari, Reggio Calabria and Catania.
