In the last two years, Italian authorities have seized goods and assets owned by the mafia worth 16 billion euros, said Interior Minister Roberto Maroni.
Our goal is to hand over these goods and assets to local authorities, and for that reason, we have established a national agency that will deal with seized assets, Maroni said at the opening of a kindergarten in a villa that was owned by the mafia. He also emphasized that by publishing the monetary value of the seized assets, the government has shown that it is present and active in the fight against the mafia and that it will go to the end in that fight. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government has intensified attacks on mafia assets by weakening their sources of financing. The head of the police department for the fight against the mafia, Rosolin Nask, said that asset wealth is the Achilles’ heel of the bosses of the Italian mafia. However, they can transfer their finances to the accounts of associates and family members if they are arrested, which allows them to later hire lawyers. (www.hrt.hr)
