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CRIME

Croatia arrests wanted Italian former mafia member

Croatian police said today they had arrested a former member of a mafia group sought by Italy, where he was convicted for drugs trafficking.

Published: 2 January 2019 17:17 CET
Croatia arrests wanted Italian former mafia member
File photo: AFP.

The 72-year-old man was arrested in the capital Zagreb on Monday December 31 on a European arrest warrant issued by Italy, where he is to serve a 10-year jail term, an interior ministry statement said.

The man was convicted as a “member of a criminal organisation and … for trafficking of larger quantities of heroine and cocaine.”

State-run HRT television identified the man arrested as Claudio D'Este, formerly a member of the powerful Venice-based Mala del Brenta mafia group.

D'Este was reportedly arrested as he was coming out of his home in the Croatian capital Zagreb with his family on December 31, reports Italian news agency Ansa.

READ ALSO: The Italian mafia is expanding abroad, and European police forces aren't prepared

He was reportedly linked to a Venetian mafia gang run by a man by the name of Felice Maniero in the 1980s and 1990s which imported hard drugs, cocaine and heroine, to the northeast of Italy. 

D'Este was arrested in the 1970s and mid 1990s, but fled Italy after serving two years of a sentence between 1997 and 1999, reports local daily La Nuova di Venezia e Mestre. 

He lived in Zagreb for more than a decade, HRT reported.

READ MORE:  Mafia informant's brother shot dead on Christmas Day

POLITICS

Italy’s Liguria regional president arrested in corruption probe

The president of Italy's northwest Liguria region and the ex-head of Genoa's port were among 10 arrested on Tuesday in a sweeping anti-corruption investigation which also targeted officials for alleged mafia ties.

Published: 7 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Italy's Liguria regional president arrested in corruption probe

Liguria President Giovanni Toti, a right-wing former MEP who was close to late prime minister Silvio Berlusconi but is no longer party aligned, was placed under house arrest, Genoa prosecutors said in a statement.

The 55-year-old is accused of having accepted 74,100 euros in funds for his election campaign between December 2021 and March 2023 from prominent local businessmen, Aldo Spinelli and his son Roberto Spinelli, in return for various favours.

These allegedly included seeking to privatise a public beach and speeding up the renewal for 30 years of the lease of a Genoa port terminal to a Spinelli family-controlled company, which was approved in December 2021.

A total of 10 people were targeted in the probe, also including Paolo Emilio Signorini, who stepped down last year as head of the Genoa Port Authority, one of the largest in Italy. He was being held in jail on Tuesday.

He is accused of having accepted from Aldo Spinelli benefits including cash, 22 stays in a luxury hotel in Monte Carlo – complete with casino chips, massages and beauty treatments – and luxury items including a 7,200-euro Cartier bracelet.

The ex-port boss, who went on to lead energy group Iren, was also promised a 300,000-euro-a-year job when his tenure expires, prosecutors said.

In return, Signorini was said to have granted Aldo Spinelli favours including also working to speed up the renewal of the family’s port concession.

The Spinellis are themselves accused of corruption, with Aldo – an ex-president of the Genoa and Livorno football clubs – placed under house arrest and his son Roberto temporarily banned from conducting business dealings.

In a separate strand of the investigation, Toti’s chief of staff, Matteo Cozzani, was placed under house arrest accused of “electoral corruption” which facilitated the activities of Sicily’s Cosa Nostra Mafia.

As regional coordinator during local elections in 2020, he was accused of promising jobs and public housing in return for the votes of at least 400 Sicilian residents of Genoa.

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