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CRIME

Italian police bust ‘Ndrangheta cannabis plantation with 26,000 plants

The plants, worth an estimated €20 million at market value, were discovered on July 21st in Vibo Valentia in Calabria, southern Italy.

Published: 23 July 2018 17:18 CEST
Italian police bust 'Ndrangheta cannabis plantation with 26,000 plants
Cannabis plants. File photo: CreativeNature/Depositphotos

The drugs plantation was run by Emanuele Mancuso, son of Pantaleone, head of the notorious 'Ndrangheta clan in the Calabrian town of Limbadi. 'Ndrangheta refers to Calabrian organized crime.

Using seeds purchased online, Mancuso had set up a vast plantation in Calabria's fertile hills. The trafficker controlled the plantation and its workers, many of whom were non-European migrants, using drones, adds the police report.

The police arrested Mancuso and 17 other accomplices and were able to “reconstruct the entire cannabis supply chain, identifying all the people involved,” said police in a statement. 

Semi di canapa comprati online e piantagioni controllate attraverso i droni, quanto scoperto dalla #Squadramobile di Vibo Valentia
26mila piante in grado di produrre circa 2 milioni di dosi di hashish o marijuana, per un valore di 20 milioni di eurohttps://t.co/woSwOQ2lIm

— Polizia di Stato (@poliziadistato) July 21, 2018

Twenty one other suspects are being investigated for drug trafficking as part of the operation. 

The plantation cultivated enough marihuana for two million doses. The offices of a company that sold cannabis seeds in 18 different Italian cities was also raided. 

READ MORE: Police drone spots 15,000 cannabis plants growing on Italian tomato farm

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.

Published: 8 April 2024 17:05 CEST
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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