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Italian police arrest mafia head, seize assets

11 May 2011 00:59 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Italian police on Tuesday arrested a suspected top boss in the Neapolitan Camorra mafia, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Police, meanwhile, also seized 600 million euros of mafia assets including 300 apartments in Rome.

Feliciano Mallardo, the suspected clan leader, was arrested with six others after a police operation, said Justice Minister Angelino Alfano.

The operation has "annihilated" the Mallardo clan, which was based in the sprawling Naples hinterland town of Giugliano, Alfano said.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said the "extraordinary" operation was proof that the government’s strategy of focusing on asset seizures was "striking the mafia in the heart."

Investigators said the Mallardo clan had shifted much of its interest to the Rome area and invested "enormous sums" in the capital. The gang had also started speculating in the construction business around Rome, where several of its building sites and more than 200 pieces of real estate were impounded.

In all, 900 apartments and 23 firms were impounded while 200 bank accounts and scores of company stakeholdings were frozen. Dozens of luxury cars and motorbikes also were seized, police said.

A coffee factory near Castel Volturno, north of Naples, was impounded, and investigators said the brand it produced had been forced on strings of bars in northern Campania and southern Lazio.