More than 100 companies were on Monday sequestered, 24 people arrested and property and cash worth more than 100 million euros (US$122 million) impounded in what is thought to be one of the biggest operations against Chinese organized crime in Europe.
Italy’s semi-militarized revenue guard, the Guardia di Finanza, said it had smashed two money-laundering networks, which, since 2006, had smuggled back to China some 2.7 billion euros largely amassed by a burgeoning counterfeit fashion industry run by Chinese criminals based in Tuscany. More than 1,000 officers took part in raids throughout Italy that also led to the impounding of 166 luxury vehicles.
The raids follow growing alarm over criminal activity among the Chinese community. Earlier this month, the Chinese ambassador to Rome traveled to the Tuscan textile manufacturing city of Prato to meet officials after a Chinese employer was shot dead by hooded gunmen and two of his compatriots were hacked to death with machetes in a cafeteria.
Laura Canovai, the prosecutor investigating the murders, said last week: “The Chinese community is not helping us. It is not cooperating with the authorities.”
According to a statement from the revenue guard, one of two money transfer firms at the center of yesterday’s operation was based in San Marino and had branches in other European cities. The second was run by two families, one Italian and the other Chinese.
To get around restrictions on international money transfers that limit individuals to 2,000 euros every eight days, the firm had arranged for money to be divided into lots just under the maximum. These were then paid into the firm’s account using identification from several different people.
Brigadier General Gaetano Mastropiero, who led the police operation from Florence, said: “That made this an unusual investigation. Usually, you start with known crimes and work back to the laundering of the proceeds. But in this instance we had a sea of money that was apparently being transferred legally, but which we suspected came from criminal activity. A large part of the investigation was devoted to proving the money came from counterfeiting, tax evasion, immoral earnings and migrant trafficking.”
He said his officers had been unable to establish links between a Chinese family, from Hubei in central China, and known organized crime syndicates such as the triads.
However, a source close to the investigation said prosecutors would seek to have several suspects indicted for organized crime offenses on the grounds that the inquiry had uncovered evidence of mafia-like activity, including intimidation and extortion.
Of those arrested, seven were Italians and 17 Chinese. Another 134 people were cautioned as suspects. Many of the firms caught up in the operation used cheap, imported Chinese textiles to produce bogus Italian fashion garments for export to eastern Europe.
The inquiries also led detectives to brothels disguised as massage parlors and beauty salons, and to sweat shops in which the workers were found to be illegal immigrants who had had their identity documents confiscated by traffickers.
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