Italian police seize Sicily mafia assets worth 250m euros

Italian police seized business assets worth 250 million euros (343 million U.S. dollars) in a major operation against Sicilian mafia on Thursday. The regional anti-mafia prosecutor's office (DIA) in Palermo, the capital of Sicily, said all confiscated assets belonged to five people allegedly linked to the powerful Galatolo clan believed to have full control over the fruits and vegetable market in the city. Among the seized properties were 13 enterprises and 20 factories, lands and homes, plus parking lots and several bank accounts, police added. No arrest warrants were announced thus far. The Galatolo family belongs to the Sicily-based mafia called Cosa Nostra. Anti-mafia national authorities recently highlighted that Palermo remains the main hub for Cosa Nostra's illegal activities, despite showing no relevant leading figures at the head of the organisation. "Matteo Messina Denaro from Trapani remains the most dangerous boss of the Sicilian mafia at the moment and his arrest is the utmost priority. Palermo, however, is still the place where Cosa Nostra reveals its decisional and operational power at the highest level," national DIA advisor Maurizio De Lucia wrote in his annual report. According to data released by Coldiretti farmers' association and Eurispes Research Institute, mafia organisations have an annual turnover of 14 billion euros in the agricultural and food business only. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimated the combined turnover of the three main Italian mafia groups, Cosa Nostra from Sicily, Ndrangheta from Calabria and Camorra from Naples, is worth around 116 billion euros per year.