Italian police have seized assets worth 1.3 billion euros ($1.7 billion) from green energy businessman Vito Nicastri who is suspected of ties with both Cosa Nostra or the Sicilian Mafia and the ‘Ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia as reported by ANSA: “this relationship allegedly facilitated his transformation from an electrician into a businessman specialising in the production of electricity from renewable sources.”
The solar plants and wind farms are ubiquitous throughout southern Italy, and the mob has exploited many of these green companies both to siphon government subsidies and launder dirty money as reported by Stephan Faris for Time.
Sicilian-mobster-turned-supergrass Antonio Birrittella claims “the modern Mafia has reinvented itself as a ‘white collar’ organization,” and become involved with “the development of wind farms and renewable energy . . . through a combination of shell companies and the infiltration of regional bodies which distribute the subsidies”as reported by Gail Champion for BBC News.
Filed under: Mafia, Organized Crime Tagged: 'Ndrangheta, Asset Seizure, Calabrian Mafia, Cosa Nostra, Sicilian Mafia
