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Alleged drug trafficker arrested in Mexico over disappearance of three Italians

Police in Mexico have arrested an alleged drug trafficker in connection with the disappearance of three Italians in January, the attorney general's office said on Monday.

Published: 31 July 2018 10:12 CEST
Alleged drug trafficker arrested in Mexico over disappearance of three Italians
A view over Guadalajara, where the suspect was found. Photo: cameralentaDepositphotos

Jose Guadalupe N was caught in Guadalajara in the country's west, said Omar Hamid Garcia, director of the criminal investigation agency at the attorney general's office.

Garcia said the suspect was “probably involved” in the disappearance of 60-year-old Rafaelle Russo, his 25-year-old son Antonio and his nephew Vicenzo Cimmino, 29, on January 31st in Jalisco state. The three Italians went missing after they were arrested by local police at a gas station.

Four police officers were arrested in February and accused of handing over the three Italians to a criminal group. Garcia said the suspect, whose surname was given only as N for legal reasons, “was possibly responsible” for buying the trio from the police.

READ ALSO: Facebook search traps Italian mobster in Mexico

The three Italians entered the country as tourists but authorities say they were involved in the sale of electric generator equipment.

Local media said N was from the Jalisco New Generation cartel, widely believed to be the main rivals to the Sinaloa group of captured drug kingpin Joaquim “El Chapo” Guzman.

Jalisco has one of the highest numbers of disappearances in Mexico, with 2,917 missing since 2017.

Mexico had a record 25,000 murders last year. Since the federal government launched a multifront anti-drug operation in 2006, more than 200,000 people have been killed but official figures do not specify how many are linked to organized crime such as drug cartels.

READ ALSO: Mexican ex-governor arrested in Italy over drug money laundering

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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