Mafia online business betting, blitz in Catania: 23 precautionary measures, 336 suspects 03 March 2021 mafia, Catania, Chronicle Illegal online bets are confirmed as one of the mafia's new businesses. A maxi operation by the GdF is underway against the infiltration of Cosa Nostra in this sector.
The military, with the support of the Scico di Roma, carried out a precautionary custody order against 23 suspects in Sicily, Emilia Romagna, Puglia, Germany, Poland and Malta.
The crimes hypothesized by the DDA are illegal gambling and betting, tax evasion, aggravated fraud and self-laundering with the aggravating circumstance of having favored the Santapaola-Ercolano mafia association. A total of 336 people are investigated in the 'Doppio Gioco' operation . The investigating judge ordered the seizure of assets and companies for 80 million euros.
THE INVESTIGATIONS In detail, the financiers discovered an illegal collection and management of online sports betting carried out through an internet gaming platform not authorized to operate in Italy, attributing the ownership to a Maltese company to hide the link with our country and connections. with Sicilian organized crime. The personal restrictive measures concern 23 people: 12 recipients of pre-trial detention in prison, two of the house arrest and nine of the prohibition of the exercise of commercial activity.
From the investigation, coordinated by the Catania DDA which investigated 339 people, it emerged that the criminal organization had also organized an illegal collection of "over the counter" bets throughout the country, through a network of agencies connected for data transmission. , to the gaming platform.
The investigations made it possible to ascertain that only a minimal part of the bets took place online, while most of the bets were made face-to-face and paid in cash. During the military investigations of the Pef unit of the Guardia di Finanza of Catania they seized almost 180 thousand euros hidden in the double bottom of a car. The operation was filmed on video and audio by the financial police. The 'turnover' is estimated at over 80 million euros, a total sum for which equivalent assets have been seized which, according to the prosecution, are bought by laundering the proceeds of bets: financial resources for 62 million in Italy, Poland and Malta; buildings and land in Puglia and Emilia-Romagna; and a restaurant company in Germany.
