Foreign News
Villas, cars and cash: Italy seizes dead Mafia mobster’s millions
Anti-mafia investigators in Italy have seized cash, companies and other assets worth more than €200m (£175m) in an operation they say targeted the network of notorious late Sicilian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro.
The funds, described as “huge amounts of capital” by the financial police in Palermo, are said to be proceeds from over four decades of drugs trafficking linked to the presumed former head of the Cosa Nostra group.
Announcing their results in Sicily on Thursday, investigators released a video showing masked police officers, some in riot gear, barging down doors and scaling walls to raid a series of vast luxury villas surrounded by palm tree-lined lawns.
Messina Denaro spent three decades on the run until his arrest in 2023 as he left a clinic where he was being treated for cancer. He died in custody soon after.
Whilst a fugitive, he had been sentenced to life for multiple murders including the assassination of two anti-mafia prosecutors in 1992 in bomb attacks several weeks apart.
He was also convicted of kidnapping and killing the 12-year-old son of a mafia man-turned-informer. After two years in captivity, the child was strangled and his body dissolved in acid so it could never be found.
Police say their latest investigation follows some of the Cosa Nostra money trail. It spanned multiple countries including Spain and Switzerland as well as the Cayman Islands.
Three people have been arrested and eight firms identified, including real estate companies said to be tied to the illicit funds.
The head of the National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor’s Office, Giovanni Melillo, called the operation “strategically significant”, not only because of the recovered cash.
“It also aims to prevent the reformation of a criminal organisation that existed until a few years ago,” he told a news conference.
“Seizing this wealth means continuing the disintegration process of the criminal group and the process of re-establishing structures capable of projecting the full intimidating power and economic and social influence of the Cosa Nostra on a global scale.”
Italy’s finance police say their operation began with a report from Andorra on an Italian woman with “significant financial resources”.
She turned out to be married to a drugs trafficker said to have close ties to the Cosa Nostra and to Messina Denaro himself.
The inquiry produced leads in several other countries.
In total, police say more than 150 officers were involved in a global operation which ranged from using drones and thermal scanners to search for hidden stashes of cash – to deploying IT experts to trace digital wallets and crypto currency.
Italian media are calling the haul “Denaro’s drugs trove” although the amount recovered is thought to be only a fraction of the vast wealth of his network which has since been reinvested all over the world.
[BBC]
A court in Malta has acquitted businessman Yorgen Fenech of masterminding the murder of prominent anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Fenech, 44, was acquitted on Wednesday at the end of a jury trial. He had been tried on charges of complicity to murder and for the lesser charge of criminal association to commit murder.
If found guilty, Fenech could have faced life in prison.
Caruana Galizia’s family were seen weeping in the packed courtroom in Valletta after the businessman was cleared of both counts by an 8-1 margin following eight hours of deliberation by the jury.
“Nine years after Daphne’s brutal assassination, the institutional failures that enabled her murder remain unaddressed and unreformed,” the slain reporter’s family said in a statement.
“Lasting justice means no person should ever face the same risks again. Our country failed to protect Daphne’s life. It owes it to her to prevent other lives being lost.”
Fenech’s family members were seen celebrating the jury’s decision.
The killing of Caruana Galizia in October 2017 shocked Europe’s journalist community and set off a political firestorm in Malta, focusing international attention on its police and judiciary.
Dubbed a “one-woman WikiLeaks”, Caruana Galizia had exposed corruption at the highest level in the Mediterranean island country, shining a spotlight on links between Malta’s business and political elites. She was 53 when she was killed.
Prosecutors argued that Fenech had wanted Caruana Galizia killed because she was about to reveal information about him.
Fenech has denied the accusations. His defence instead pointed fingers at his one-time friend Keith Schembri, the former chief of staff of then-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and a target of Caruana Galizia’s blogs.
Muscat, who was never linked to the murder, stepped down in January 2020 due to the political fallout from the assassination.
Police told the court that Schembri had never been a suspect. He has denied any role in the murder.
An independent inquiry in 2021 found that officials in Malta had failed to protect Caruana Galizia from threats to her life before her death.
[Aljazeera]
A head teacher’s quick decision to evacuate his school saved 900 pupils from deadly flash floods along the Nepal-Tibet border
Rajendra Dawadi tells the BBC he was tipped off about incoming flood waters and moved students to higher ground with just minutes to spare. One pupil says she and her friends survived by just 10 seconds and watched as a nearby bazaar was swept away
Wednesday’s disaster has killed at least 794 people and more than 2,500 people are missing in Nepal, local officials say
In Tibet, the official death toll is 16, with 546 reported to be missing, according to Chinese state media –
[BBC]
A ferry carrying around 260 people has capsized off the coast of northern Cyprus with a search underway for survivors, according to local media.
The catamaran-style boat was travelling from the port of Kyrenia, also known as Girne, and started sinking a few kilometres off the coast of the island state on Sunday.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
[Aljazeera]
Malaysia declares emergency in Sarawak as haze from Indonesia worsens
UAE keep semi-final hopes alive after convincing win over Indonesia
Sun directly overhead Moratuwa, Kesbewa, Handapangoda, Idalgashinna, Yudhaganawa, Kotiyagala and Panama about 12.08 noon today (05)
Showers above 75 mm are likely at some places in the Uva, Central and Eastern provinces and in Polonnaruwa and Mullaittivu districts after 2.00 p.m
Namal remanded until Sept. 18 over Airbus deal investigation
Dengue cases surpass 96,000 this year
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