Italy has cracked open a mafia ring accused of infiltrating one of the country's largest migrant reception centres and capitalising on asylum seekers with the help of a Catholic association, police said today.
Italy has cracked open a mafia ring accused of infiltrating one of the country's largest migrant reception centres and capitalising on asylum seekers with the help of a Catholic association, police said today.
The Arena clan, a family belonging to the powerful 'Ndrangheta crime syndicate, allegedly made a killing by supplying services for the centre at Isola di Capo Rizzuto and syphoning off money from the state destined for the migrants.
"Over 500 agents overnight arrested 68 people... accused of mafia association, extortion, carrying illegal weapons, fraud, embezzlement to the detriment of the state, (and) theft," police in Catanzaro, a city in Calabria, said in statement.
Their investigation revealed "that the clan controlled, for profit, the management of the reception centre" at Isola di Capo Rizzuto -- which has held up to 1,500 migrants at a time -- and had been doing so for over a decade.
Police arrested Leonardo Sacco, head of the Catholic Misericordia association which officially runs the centre. The 35-year-old has boasted of links to high-powered political figures.
Local priest Edoardo Scordio was also detained in the sting, according to Italian media reports.
Police say they believe the Arena clan, through Sacco, awarded contracts for services such as the centre's food supplies to associations it set up specifically for the purpose, as well as to other 'Ndrangheta families.
It also provided food services to the reception centre on Lampedusa, the Italian island which for several years was the frontline of the migrant humanitarian crisis, the biggest influx in Europe since World War II.
The head of the country's anti-mafia commission, Rosy Bindi, said the sting was "an important result in the fight against the 'Ndrangheta and the infiltration of mafia in the management of migrants".
About 175,000 people are currently living in reception centres, where the state provides food, clothing, Italian lessons, psychological support, health care and a small amount of pocket money.
Italy's finance ministry has estimated the 2017 budget for migrant reception at three billion euros ($3.3 billion), depending on how many people are rescued in the Mediterranean and brought to the country.
More than 45,000 people have arrived so far this year, a 44 percent increase from the same period in 2016.
The Calabrian centre had long been on the authorities' radar: In 2015 Italy's L'Espresso magazine published an investigative report alleging that managers at the camp were stealing funds earmarked for migrants and making money by starving them.
The Crotone prefecture said in 2014 that it appeared the official number of people recorded at the centre was grossly inflated, with management pocketing funds from the state for "ghost" migrants.
L'Espresso said it had got hold of a police report putting the figure at over 10,000 euros a day.
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
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