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Dogs used as drug mules to Italy

South American drug gangs in Milan have been using dogs to smuggle cocaine from Mexico to Italy, the police said on Tuesday after an operation that found at least 48 dogs had been killed to retrieve the drugs.

Dogs used as drug mules to Italy
The dogs were dismembered by drug traffickers. Photo: Ann Gordon/Flickr

The animals were forced to swallow plastic packets containing the drug before being sent to Italy on flights that usually landed at Linate airport in Milan.

The packages were wrapped in black vinyl tape to shield them from X-ray checks at the airports.

The drug traffickers then dismembered the dogs.

A court on Tuesday ordered that 49 people arrested in the operation to face trial under a fast-track procedure, a police spokesman in Milan told AFP.

They are all alleged members of South American "pandillas" ("drug rings") that used the dogs.

There were outraged reactions from Italian associations for the defence of animals that expressed their support for police involved in the operation.

This cruel smuggling method often ends up killing the dogs before they get to their destination as even a minimal leak of the cocaine can be fatal to the animals.

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CRIME

Italy has most recovery fund fraud cases in EU, report finds

Italy is conducting more investigations into alleged fraud of funds from the EU post-Covid fund and has higher estimated losses than any other country, the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) said.

Italy has most recovery fund fraud cases in EU, report finds

The EPPO reportedly placed Italy under special surveillance measures following findings that 179 out of a total of 206 investigations into alleged fraud of funds through the NextGenerationEU programme were in Italy, news agency Ansa reported.

Overall, Italy also had the highest amount of estimated damage to the EU budget related to active investigations into alleged fraud and financial wrongdoing of all types, the EPPO said in its annual report published on Friday.

The findings were published after a major international police investigation into fraud of EU recovery funds on Thursday, in which police seized 600 million euros’ worth of assets, including luxury villas and supercars, in northern Italy.

The European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility, established to help countries bounce back from the economic blow dealt by the Covid pandemic, is worth more than 800 billion euros, financed in large part through common EU borrowing.

READ ALSO: ‘It would be a disaster’: Is Italy at risk of losing EU recovery funds?

Italy has been the largest beneficiary, awarded 194.4 billion euros through a combination of grants and loans – but there have long been warnings from law enforcement that Covid recovery funding would be targeted by organised crime groups.

2023 was reportedly the first year in which EU financial bodies had conducted audits into the use of funds under the NextGenerationEU program, of which the Recovery Fund is part.

The EPPO said that there were a total of 618 active investigations into alleged fraud cases in Italy at the end of 2023, worth 7.38 billion euros, including 5.22 billion euros from VAT fraud alone.

At the end of 2023, the EPPO had a total of 1,927 investigations open, with an overall estimated damage to the EU budget of 19.2 billion euros.

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