Italy Seizes $1.9 Billion in Mafia-Linked Assets

By GAIA PIANIGIANI
Published: September 14, 2010

ROME— The Italian police seized $1.9 billion in assets belonging to a Sicilian businessman linked to the Mafia in the country’s biggest blow against organized crime, Italy’s interior minister said Tuesday.

The businessman, Vito Nicastri, mainly operates in the alternative-energy business and has already been involved in several investigations focused on Mafia infiltration in the construction of windmills in Sicily’s Trapani Province and on links between the Mafia and ’Ndrangheta crime associations in Calabria, according to a statement by Rome Anti-Mafia Directorate. Italian authorities seized Mr. Nicastri’s assets to investigate him, but he has not been arrested.

The seized assets included more than 100 properties around Sicily, 43 companies operating mainly in the wind- and solar-power industry — some with headquarters in Luxembourg — as well as luxury cars, a 46-foot catamaran, bank accounts and securities.

“This is the proof of the fact that the Mafia is dynamic and able to interpret the new needs of our society,â€