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CRIME

‘Ndrangheta: Court takes over mafia-linked Sicilian ferry company

The company that runs ferries between Sicily and the Italian mainland has been placed under judicial administration due to mafia infiltration, police said on Wednesday.

'Ndrangheta: Court takes over mafia-linked Sicilian ferry company
The ferry port in Messina, Sicily. File photo: AFP
The six-month penalty was applied to the 'Caronte & Tourist' ferry company for favouring the interests of the 'Ndrangheta, the notorious mob from the southern Calabria region.
 
 
Caronte & Tourist is a well-known operator in Italy, which holds a de-facto monopoly on ferry connections over the Strait of Messina, which separate Sicily and Calabria.
 

 
According to Italy's anti-mafia police, the company farmed out lucrative catering, cleaning, and ticket booking services to 'Ndrangheta-controlled companies.
 
It was said to have hired a couple of 'Ndrangheta mobsters who used their position as insiders to steer business towards their criminal associates.
 
Authorities seized assets worth 800,000 euros (962,000 dollars) from one of them, Massimo Buda. He was described as the son of a jailed Ndrangheta clan leader.
 
The 'Ndrangheta – considered Italy's richest and most powerful crime syndicate due to their control of most of the cocaine entering Europe – is currently the target of a massive trial in Calabria involving over 300 defendants.

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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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