ROME (AFP) — Italian police said on Wednesday they had dismantled a massive Mafia operation in Sicily that had been defrauding the European Union of millions of euros in funds destined to farmers.
Ninety-four people were arrested in the early-morning raids, the public prosecutor in Messina said in a statement.
Those arrested included the heads of two Mafia families, a notary, entrepreneurs and public administrators tasked with helping farmers get access to funds.
Since 2013, the Tortorici Mafia — named after a town in the Nebrodi mountainous area in the island's northeast — had defrauded about 10 million euros ($11 million) from the EU, Rai24 TV reported.
The clan falsely claimed they owned plots of land that in reality were owned by the region and local councils, thereby tapping EU funding.
Key to the plot were employees of a public agency for agricultural payments, which distributes EU funds to farmers, and those working for assistance centers set up to help farmers tap funding.
In a charge sheet, Judge Sergio Matroeni said the swindle relied on the "unprincipled support" of white-collar workers with the "necessary knowhow to infiltrate the Mafia into the nerve center of public funding" and who knew how to exploit lax controls.
Forty-eight of those arrested were sent to jail while the others were placed under house arrest, police said.
© Agence France-Presse
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