A "hidden bank" has been hit by the Italian authorities which, at the disposal of organized crime, was able to move significant amounts of capital beyond the borders of Italy, with branches also in Ticino. Among this group there were also Albanians. According to local media, the money came mainly from tax fraud, as well as from international drug and arms trafficking. This is the scenario at the center of a wide-ranging operation by the Guardia di Finanza of Milan and Monza Brianza, coordinated by the Anti-Mafia and Terrorism District Directorate of the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office.
The operation has resulted in thirty arrests (sixteen in prison, the others under house arrest) and the seizure of assets worth over 21 million euros. One of those arrested is a 62-year-old man born in Naples. Together with 13 other people arrested, he is accused of criminal group and the use of mafia methods, some of them members of the 'Ndrangheta, the Camorra and the so-called Fourth Mafia (organized crime in Foggia). The investigation uncovered over 110 million euros in counterfeit bills and 68 million euros in international money laundering through cryptocurrencies.
According to the prosecutor's office, this money laundering operation originated in Lugano. In addition to the arrests, checks were carried out in various Italian provinces, with the deployment of over 350 Guardia di Finanza personnel, as well as specialized units and the "Anti-Terrorism Deployment Readiness" component of the Corps. The checks were also carried out in Ticino, with the support of the I-Can Unit (Interpol Cooperation against 'Ndrangheta) of the International Police Cooperation Service and in close collaboration with Security Experts of the Central Directorate of Criminal Police stationed in Madrid and Bern. During the checks, the Guardia di Finanza seized cash, bank accounts, cryptocurrencies, cars, boats, jewelry, luxury watches and money counting machines.
Investigations by the Guardia di Finanza (Fiamme Gialle) uncovered a real “hidden bank” in Pero, between the provinces of Como and Milan, under the cover of a car rental company. It was controlled by three Italians believed to be close to mafia organisations, two long-time contacts of the ‘Ndrangheta’ clans of Crotone (already convicted in the ‘Infinito’ and ‘Aemilia’ investigations) and a member of the Casalesi clan. According to the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office, the organisation offered an invoice issuing service (worth 110 million euros) for non-existent transactions through a dense network of fictitious companies. After receiving payment transfers for the falsified invoices, the suspects returned the equivalent amount in cash to business owners in compliance with the rules via couriers – technically, back payments.
The accumulated bank funds were then transferred almost entirely to foreign bank accounts or invested in the purchase of difficult-to-trace cryptocurrencies, an activity carried out by the man arrested in Lugano. In this way, the “hidden bank” offered its “clients” (mainly drug traffickers and tax evaders) all the typical services of a financial institution, but using clandestine methods that allowed them to transfer funds outside official channels, bypassing anti-money laundering measures.
Investigators believe the sum was “no less” than 51.5 million euros, “channeled through bank accounts” held by fictitious companies and controlled by the organization. Of this amount, 48.2 million euros allegedly generated “an amount of cryptocurrency equal to no less than 47.2 million euros” and 3.3 million euros “linked to the flow recorded in the banking investigations.”
