As police continued to search through furniture and closets throughout the apartment, they also uncovered 11 Rolex watches and evidence of this syndicate’s sinister operations, including weapons and drug paraphernalia.
Allegedly, members of the Angelino clan reportedly held all these ill-gotten gains, and many were carrying out their operations while behind bars. Over the past month, Neapolitan anti-mafia prosecutor Nicola Gratteri said his team wiretapped the cellphones these mobsters were using. Police also received more information on this apartment from informants who asked for protection.
In total, local authorities arrested 34 people in connection with this illicit cash, charging them with crimes ranging from drug trafficking to extortion. As for the money and valuables, police will send them to Italy’s “Justice Fund” to help those affected by the ills of organized crime.
Methods of the modern mafia
The money and luxury watches were just the tangible valuables investigators got from their Naples raid. According to Gratteri, he and his team also learned many invaluable lessons about how the modern mafia operates.
Speaking to the press, Gratteri described the Angelino clan’s operation as following an “entrepreneurial” model in which different people worked shifts like a regular job — but for their illegal activities.
However, compared with other high-profile recent busts, the Naples case seems relatively small and straightforward.
For instance, a Europol investigation recently showed how multinational the mafia has become. Police spread across multiple countries followed the movements of millions of dollars in laundered funds — some tied to luxury vehicles, multi-million-dollar properties and crypto — connected to cocaine trafficking for the Camorra and the ‘Ndrangheta clans. It took an international effort to find and nab the suspects, including support from agencies in France, Germany, Ecuador and Bulgaria, to name a few.
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) also showed that mobsters are still big into tax evasion tricks. In a separate case codenamed “Operation Moby Dick,” a Milan court convicted six people and confiscated €300 million after the OCCRP discovered a massive fraud scheme.
Criminals allegedly used fake invoices for electronics like AirPods and laptops over years to avoid paying taxes or to claim tax refunds illegally. In total, these fake invoices cost European and national budgets an estimated €520 million.
Are there fortunes under your floorboards?
Whenever stories like the one in Naples make headlines, it’s only human to wonder whether there are hidden riches at home. In most cases, tearing up walls probably won’t reveal anything but insulation and electrical wires, but that doesn’t mean a rare find isn’t possible.
