War in Ukraine: Weapons, dirty money, prostitution – Italian authorities on alert for the mafia

A few days ago, the Italian Tax Office, located an accountant, who ordered the transfer of all the cash of the construction company, of which he is a representative. The authorities believed that something vague was happening and linked it to her Calabrian mafia. Searching, they found that a Russian investor was behind it.

According to the Italian newspaper «La Repubblica» this is not an isolated incident. The money movement is already visible in Italy and the authorities are afraid that because of the sanctions, the war in Ukraine will become fertile ground for the operation of criminal organizations. Italian authorities are already worried about the mafia. “The government is well aware that war can open a ‘window’ on criminal organizations for their dangerous and illegal activities,” said Justice Minister Marta Kartambia.. “They will not find us unprepared,” he added.

Perhaps this is one of the main reasons why the Italy moves faster than any other country and imposes them sanctions. So far, they have confiscated assets worth more than one billion euros.

After they became known, the judiciary and the police mechanism have devised a specific “attack” plan for what they might face. “Recycling” money with the help of the mafia – mainly Camora and Ndrangheta, paying special attention to cryptocurrency transactions. Last year, according to the same source, 13 billion euros of Russian funds “entered” Italy, with the authorities considering five of them “of suspicious origin”.. Homes from them, shares, shops, restaurants were acquired with sums from them. Three days ago, the financial police requested from the Bank of Italy the data of all Russians and Belarusians who have accounts with deposits in excess of 100,000 euros.

“Why the mafias,” said anti-mafia prosecutor Federico Cafiero de Rajo, “as always they are one step ahead – while we think today they are already working on what will happen tomorrow.” “And the ‘gold’ of war is not money, but weapons.”. Thus, this is also in the focus of the authorities, mainly the market of weapons coming from the front. “The war in Yugoslavia was the mother of heaven for the Italian mafias”, said Nicola Gratieri, anti-mafia prosecutor in Catanzaro. “Their arsenals are still based on those weapons.”

In addition, they are concerned about human trafficking and prostitution. With Poland, Romania and Moldova no longer able to manage the millions of people who have crossed their borders, There are many NGOs that report that those who receive refugees by bus are not innocent volunteers. Already, cases have been reported where there are advertisements for transporting only young women or children and mothers with their young children.

Source: News Beast

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