May 08 2008
Mafia arrests in Palermo and Milan
Police on Thursday detained two convicted Mafia members in the Sicilian city of Palermo who had been on the run for several months.
Convicted Mafia members Gaetano Nostro, 39, and Raimondo Messina, 36, went to ground several months after they were released from detention on a technicality.
Just before the pair went on the run, Italy’s highest court, the Court of Cassation upheld a 14-year jail term given to Nostro and 15-year sentence handed to Messina for Mafia association, extortion and drug trafficking.
Two prominent Palermo businessmen and a Swiss banker were also arrested in Italy on Thursday. The three are suspected of laundering cash from unspecified Mafia activities in offshore tax-havens.
Property developers Francesco Zummo and his son Ignazio, as well as Swiss banker Nicola Bravetti, a director of the Swiss bank Arner, were arrested early on Thursday.
The Zummos are suspected of depositing vast sums of laundered money from unspecified Mafia activities in offshore accounts, with help from Bravetti.
Palermo chief prosecutor Francesco Messineo, described Bravetti as the “brains of the operation”.
Palermo’s preliminary investigating magistrate Roberto Conti issued the arrest warrants for the three men.
Conti also ordered 13 million euros deposited in a bank account in the Bahamas to be seized, as well as a deep-sea fishing boat and other goods.
The frozen bank account was held at the Arner Bank in Nassau, capital of the Bahamas. The account was in Francesco Zummo’s wife’s name.
Messineo described the probe as “very complex, and carried out abroad as well as on national soil.” Six other people including Francesco Zummo’s wife, are currently under investigation.
Two years ago, Francesco Zummo, was sentenced in plea bargaining to five years and Ignazio to three years in prison for aiding and abetting and associating with the Mafia.
Mafia arrests in Palermo and Milan - AKI - 8 May 2008 - http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.2143650590
