Italy Busts Mafia 'Secret Bank' That Laundered Money Through Crypto, Seizes $24M
Authorities seize €21 million in cash, crypto, and luxury goods from a network linked to 'Ndrangheta and Camorra.
Quick Look
Italian police arrested 30 people and seized €21 million in an anti-mafia operation targeting an underground bank near Milan operated by individuals linked to 'Ndrangheta and Camorra criminal groups.
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Why It Matters
Italian law enforcement targeted a complex underground banking operation connected to major organized crime syndicates.
Italian police have arrested 30 people accused of running an underground bank for organized crime from a car-rental business near Milan, and seized €21 million (about $23.6 million) in cash, bank balances, cryptocurrency, boats, jewelry and luxury watches, Italian news agency ANSA reported on Wednesday.
The operation, carried out by the Guardia di Finanza, Italy's financial police, on the orders of Milan's anti-mafia prosecutors, targeted suspects linked to the 'Ndrangheta, the Camorra and organized crime groups from Foggia in southern Italy. Sixteen were taken into custody and 14 placed under house arrest, including two people arrested in Spain and one in Switzerland.
According to investigators, the business in Pero, on the outskirts of Milan, was run by three Italians: two long-standing contacts of 'Ndrangheta clans from Crotone, both previously convicted in earlier mafia investigations, and a member of the Camorra's Casalesi clan. Chinese and Albanian accomplices helped operate the network, prosecutors said.
Shell companies issued more than €110 million in invoices for services never provided, letting businesses cut their tax bills. Those firms paid by bank transfer and received the money back in cash, minus a commission. The network moved about €68 million abroad, according to prosecutors.
Funds gathered in the shell companies' accounts were sent to banks in Luxembourg, Lithuania and Germany, then routed through crypto exchanges into wallets controlled by the network, Bloomberg reported. Drug traffickers who handed over cash received crypto or international bank transfers in return, and the network also handled money stolen from victims of online crypto investment scams, according to the report.
The Guardia di Finanza's technology fraud unit supported the investigation, which is set out in a court order running to more than 500 pages.
Among those arrested is a Guardia di Finanza inspector, placed under house arrest on corruption charges, according to Calabrian outlet LaC News24. Investigators also accused a Milan court employee of leaking information about ongoing investigations, and a lawyer and a former member of the financial police are among those caught up in the case.
What to Watch
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
Further court proceedings based on the 500-page order
Very likely · Within months
Open Questions
- What are the specific identities of all arrested suspects?
- Which international banks were complicit in the transfers?
