Italy: Luxury 'Mafia' beach hotel impounded south

- Italian police on Wednesday impounded a luxury hotel in southern Italy that investigators contend is owned by a clan from the country's most powerful and wealthy mafia network - the 'Ndrangheta.


Police from the southern Calabria region early Wednesday raided the Parco dei Principi hotel in the town of Marina di Gioiosa Jonica. Investigators believe that beach hotel belongs to the Coluccio crime family, even if it is registered under another name.


The hotel, advertised as "five-star" accommodations, is valued at 11 million euros, according to a police statement.


Seven people associated with the hotel are under investigation for money laundering and fraud, in relation with public financing.


A person who answered the telephone at the hotel couldn't immediately say if guests and reservations will be affected by the police raid.


The 'Ndrangheta is the mafia organisation from the Calabria region. http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Aki/English/Security/?id=3.1.1625620092

Big Brother TV Show condemned by Mafia Victims

An Italian reality TV show named Big Brother is being condemned by families of Mafia Victims for booking Ferdinando Giordano as a contestant. Fernando Giordano , is the son of Mobster Matteo Giordano, a convicted member of the Neopolitan Camorra. The National Association for the Families of Mafia Victims said it was "shameful" to exploit the gangster's notoriety to boost the show's ratings. Reports BBC News.
read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11605208

Francesco Di Fresco, dangerous Sicilian cosa nostra boss caught

ROME — Francesco Di Fresco one of the most dangerous Sicilian mafia La Cos Nostra bosses was arrested Thursday after 15 years on the run when police found him hiding in a secret space behind a wardrobe in his wife's luxury apartment, officials said.

Francesco Di Fresco was arrested after police became suspicious that his wife had hardly left the house in the last few months, a spokeswoman for the police force in the Sicilian capital Palermo told AFP.

"They found him in the secret space," the spokeswoman said.

During a previous search on Monday, investigators had found the table set for three while only his wife and his daughter could be seen in the apartment.

It was only when police returned with a detailed plan of the apartment that they discovered a secret closet, measuring 120 centimetres by 50 centimetres (47 inches by 19 inches), hidden behind a large wardrobe that could be moved.

"The mafia has received a serious blow today. Francesco Di Fresco was considered one of Cosa Nostra's most dangerous members in Palermo," Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said.

The mafia boss has been on the run since 1995 for kidnapping and murder and was one of the 100 most wanted fugitives in Italy.

'Ndrangheta laundering money in Germany

Berlin – Italian mafia organisations are investing billions of euros into Germany to hide their profits from the Italian authorities, organized crime experts said in Berlin on Friday.


“Germany is one of the most important sanctuaries, if not the most important,” Italy’s top anti-mafia lawyer Alberto Cisterna told German Press Agency dpa.


Since German reunification 20 years ago, he said former East Germany had become a key area for Italian mafia organizations to launder their profits.


Cisterna was part of an Italian delegation meeting German investigators in Berlin for a conference on ways of tackling organised crime.


Laura Garavini, a mafia expert in Italy’s Democratic Party, said eastern Germany was particular popular with the ‘Ndrangheta organisation from Italy’s southern Calabria region.


“In the first few years, when the east drew capital from all sorts of directions and nobody paid too much attention where it was coming from, the mafia channelled investments into real estate, tourism and the restaurant business,” Garavini said.


German investigators have also traced ‘Ndrangheta money to the Frankfurt stock exchange.


Cisterna said the mafia bosses presented themselves in Germany as serious businessmen, when in fact they were laundering money.


“If they pay 700,000 euros (860,000 dollars) into the bank each day, nobody suspects a thing if they own, say, a supermarket – even if it does not sell anything,” the lawyer said, adding that Germany’s prosperity made the country ideal.


“The best place to hide a grain of corn is in a corn shed,” Cisterna added.


Garavini said the mafia felt safe in Germany, in the assumption that it would be harder to confiscate their assets outside of Italy. She appealed for lawmakers to make use of a new EU regulation which enabled investments to be seized abroad.


Doing so had helped to fight the mafia in Italy, Garavini told

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/326094,italian-mafia-laundering-profits-in-germany-finds-conference.html

Mafia godfather takes revenge on uncle after wife leaves

Mafia gang destroyed a bowling alley and amusement arcade after a godfather's wife left him.
Giuseppe Palumbo, 34, ordered the raid after his wife went to stay with an uncle, the owner of the premises.

Customers cowered as the six-strong gang, wearing crash helmets and carrying guns, pushed over gaming machines and then poured petrol on to bowling lanes before setting them on fire.

Police released the footage of the raids at Giugliano and Pozzuoli near Naples, home of the southern Mafia known as the Camorra.

A spokesman said: “Palumbo was furious because the uncle had been given the money by him to set up the premises and he viewed it as an offence to his honou

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23827140-mafia-godfather-takes-revenge-on-uncle-after-wife-leaves.do

Italy:Calabrian Mafia attack blamed for halting Easter procession

Vibo Valentia, 6 April (AKI) - Prosecutors in the southern Italian town of Vibo Valentia are investigating the alleged intimidation of a local priest by Calabrian mafia gunmen which led to the cancellation of a traditional Easter vigil procession.

Last Saturday's traditional 'Affruntata' procession in the Calabrian village of Sant'Onofrio was cancelled after suspected mafia gunmen fired rounds of bullets outside the home of the procession's organiser, local priest Michele Virdo.

The attack drew condemnation from across the political spectrum.

"This serious act of intimidation must not discourage those who are fighting the 'Ndrangheta (Calabrian mafia)," said historic anti-mafia campaigner Leoluca Orlando, now a member of the centre-left Italy of Values opposition party.

The gun attack against Virdo's residence followed the exclusion of local mafia members from the 'Affruntata' on orders of the bishop of the surrounding Vibo-Mileto-Tropea diocese, Monsignor Luigi Renzo.

The attack was condemned by far-right party La Destra founder Francesco Storace.

"Our solidarity is with the church which does not tolerate mafia bosses," he said.

In a longstanding tradition, young members of the local Calabrian mafia carry statues of the Virgin Mary, Jesus and various saints during the 'Affruntata' procession.

Taking part in the 'Affruntata' is reportedly considered a rite of passage for many young people aligned with the mafia.

Paramilitary 'Carabinieri' police from Vibo Valentia and the surrounding province collected around 30 bullets and cartridges from outside Virdo's home, which were due to be analysed by ballistics experts.