More than three million euros seized from the walls of a house in Naples

Italian police discovered in Naples more than three million euros in cash hidden in the walls of the house of an alleged drug lord, following a tip, a senior official from the anti-mafia prosecution told AFP on Wednesday September 23. This seizure was carried out as part of an investigation launched in 2023, which resulted on Monday in the arrest of 34 people accused of belonging to an armed criminal association and of using mafia methods to engage in drug trafficking.

Bundles hidden in the walls

The cash and a cache of weapons were seized last year from a property in Caivano, a northeastern suburb of Naples in southern Italy, under the influence of the Camorra, Naples prosecutor Nicola Gratteri told AFP. The information came from a suspect arrested in July 2025, who became a prosecution witness. Two days after this arrest, the police searched the house.

“We all knew the money was there, but we didn't know where exactly; so we searched the house from top to bottom. Many of these bundles of money were hidden in the walls, in compartments in built-in furniture,” added Nicola Gratteri. “Others were hidden under the floor and the shower tray. We also found Kalashnikovs, weapons of war” and “collector’s watches,” he added.

One of the three main criminal groups

Investigators had focused on a neighborhood in Caivano known to be a hub for large-scale drug trafficking, particularly cocaine. The informant told police that the money was kept by the drug lord's wife, whose minor children were part of a team monitoring him 24 hours a day, according to local news site Anteprime24. The hideouts were also protected by electronic security systems, the site said.

The Camorra, based mainly in the Naples region, is one of the three main organized crime groups in Italy, alongside the Sicilian Cosa Nostra and the 'Ndrangheta, based in Calabria. Telephone tapping played an essential role in the investigation - as is the case in all investigations targeting organized crime, Nicola Gratteri said. Caivano made headlines in 2023 after the revelation of the gang rape of two cousins, aged 10 and 11.