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Mafia Clans Lose Assets Worth $100 Million

The life is only fun until someone loses his assets.

Italian police have seized over $100 million in suspected Mafia assets pursuant to two separate investigations.

Yesterday companies, property and funds worth 48 million euros ($62 million) were seized from a business group involved with methane conversion which authorities suspect was backed by the Corleonesi clan from Cosa Nostra or the Sicilian Mafia as reported by ANSA.

And today assets worth 40 million euros ($51.5 million) were seized from multiple businessmen whom authorities suspect were clean names for the Mancuso clan from the 'Ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia as reported by ANSA.

Calabrian Mafia Is Top Dog In Italian Underworld

In recent years Cosa Nostra or the Sicilian Mafia has been eclipsed by the 'Ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia as Italy's most powerful crime group due to its obscene profits from the cocaine trade as reported by Tristan Dessert for France 24:

The 'Ndrangheta controls the majority of international cocaine traffic, with an estimated 80 percent monopoly on European imports of the white powder. The organisation pulls in 44 billion euros a year; that's almost three percent of Italy's GDP, which means the 'Ndrangheta has as much financial clout as a small European country, or a huge multinational corporation.

The drug trafficking crime group launders much of its dirty money in the German economy where it invests "millions of euros in hotel chains and restaurants (they own 300 pizzerias)" according to Petra Reski in her new book The Honoured Society as reported by P.D. Smith for The Guardian.

The 'Ndrangheta has migrated from Italy's southern Calabria region into the wealthier northern cities, and further has become entrenched in Australia, Canada and the United States with surprisingly little push back from law enforcement in those countries.

Mob Boss Takes One For The Team; Turns Self In To Deflect Heat Against 'Ndrangheta

The Pesce clan from the 'Ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia is "a criminal dynasty" spanning at least three generations which has "built a family empire worth at least £200m through drug trafficking across Europe," and earlier this week its 33-year-old acting boss Giuseppe Pesce surrended after three years on the lam in an apparent bid to stave off police pressure on the criminal network as reported by Elena Cosentino for BBC News:

The net had been closing around Peppe Pesce for months as, one by one, his accomplices had been arrested. Only two weeks ago his wife, who is seven months pregnant, was put under house arrest for passing her husband's orders around.  "This is a major success for the authority of the state. But don't be fooled," said Alessandra Cerreti, who led the investigation and prosecution against the clan.  "These are never individual decisions. Usually they are clan strategies. By sacrificing one they hope to relieve the pressure we are putting on the whole organisation. But it won't work."

Mob Boss Cries Uncle

After three years on the lam Giuseppe Pesce, the acting boss of the Rosarno clan from the 'Ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia, has surrendered to authorities as reported by ANSA:

"Enough, I'm tired of running. Better to end it here," Pesce reportedly told his defense lawyers, Gregorio Cacciola and Benito Infantino, when he asked them to take him to police.

Turns out the life is not so sweet.

Coke Bust (Again) At Gioia Tauro

Italian police on Wednesday seized 28 kilos of cocaine in the container port of Gioia Tauro which is used by the 'Ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia to smuggle product from Colombia into Italy as reported by ANSA:  "since the start of the year, police have seized a total of 430 kilos of cocaine at the port."