Italian police seize assets from mafia-linked entrepreneur

Italian anti-mafia police on Monday seized assets worth around 50 million euros ( 58 million U.S. dollars) from an entrepreneur who is believed to have links to the Sicilian mafia, local media reported.

According to la Repubblica national newspaper, the assets included 10 companies, 25 buildings and 350 hectares of land, all belonged to Paolo Farinella, a 71-year-old entrepreneur based in Sicily, an island region in the south of the country.

Farinella was believed to act as a "privileged interlocutor" of local mafia bosses. The investigation against him was launched after police uncovered suspicious bank operations, Rai State television reported.

In the operations, Farinella and his daughter were allegedly the owners of several construction companies winning public contracts throughout Italy, numerous buildings and large plots of lands in Sicily.

According to investigators, Farinella had replaced his cousin, who has been accused of mafia association, to serve as the head of those businesses.

Monday's operation was only the latest in a series of moves carried out by Italian authorities to combat the infiltrations of criminal syndicates in the country's economic and political spheres.

In one of the cases, more than 100 people including former Rome mayor Gianni Alemanno and several public officials in the Italian capital were put under investigation for alleged criminal association.

Also on Monday, Justice Minister Andrea Orlando said in a briefing in the lower house that recent high-profile probes have highlighted an unacceptable level of corruption in Italy.

"The investigations demonstrate that corruption has reached intolerable proportions, due to frequent links with mafia-type organizations," Orlando was quoted by economic newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore as saying.

"This has devastating effects on the economy and on citizens," Orlando said, highlighting the government's recent presentation of a bill to strengthen anti-corruption measures and reinforce prevention activity.

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