Police on Monday cracked down against a major Mafia money laundering operation run by the Rinzivillo family.
A total of 88 arrest warrants were issued, mostly for laundering through the management of public contracts and sub-contracts.
According to investigators, the money being laundered was illicit proceeds from drug dealing, extortion and arms trafficking.
Aside from using construction contracts and subcontracts, often obtained through intimidation, investigators said Rinzivillo money was also laundered through loan sharking to small businessmen which often resulted in taking control of the business.
Arrests were made throughout Italy, as far north as Como and Brescia, and two European warrants were issued against individuals in Spain and Britain.
According to investigators, the Rinzivillo family had moved its base of operations from the southern Sicilian town of Gela to Rome over a year ago and since then had sought to stay out of the limelight in order to disguise their activities.
Among those arrested was a Carabinieri police officer, posted here in this southern Sicilian city, who had acted as a mole for the Rinzivillo family, providing information in the progress of police investigations
