An international operation coordinated by the Palermo District Anti-Mafia Directorate resulted in the seizure of assets, companies and financial assets valued at more than 200 million euros, approximately R$ 1,1 billion. Three people were arrested this Thursday (28) in Sicily, accused of managing the illicit assets accumulated by the mafia boss. Matteo Messina Denaro throughout decades of drug trafficking.
The action was conducted by Palermo Finance Department and encompassed investigations in Andorra, Gibraltar, the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Lebanon, Monaco and SpainThe operation was coordinated by the Palermo prosecutor, Maurizio de Lucia, and the deputy prosecutor, Vito Di Giorgio, with the cooperation of judicial and police authorities from each of the countries involved.
The man behind the scheme
Among those arrested is Giacomo Tamburello, 66, a native of Campobello di Mazara, the same town where Messina Denaro maintained his last hideout before being captured. A clothing salesman in the 1980s, he allegedly closed the business in 1985 and began justifying million-dollar deposits by claiming inheritances and real estate profits. According to investigators, the money was actually the product of international drug trafficking.
The court ruling states that Tamburello's activities "were always characterized by a conscious and close functional relationship with Cosa Nostra," especially with the clans of Campobello di Mazara and Castelvetrano, the birthplace of the organization led by Denaro.
Also arrested were his ex-wife, Maria Antonina Bruno, and the couple's son, Luca Tamburello. A graduate in finance and international banking, Luca worked at Morgan Stanley in London. Investigators maintain that this experience was used to build connections within the international banking system in service of the family scheme.
The investigation began after a bank in Andorra notified authorities about multimillion-dollar transactions attributed to Maria Antonina Bruno. Following this alert, investigators traced a network of shell companies and offshore structures spread across Europe.
Informants and the connection to Brazil
Two cooperating witnesses were crucial to the operation. Vincenzo Spezia, son of a former mafia boss and arrested in 2003 after years on the run in Venezuela, stated that the Tamburello family ran businesses in Spain as a cover for drug trafficking.
“They opened ice cream parlors on the Costa del Sol, but they also trafficked tons of hashish. They made billions,” Spezia declared in his testimony.
The second collaborator, Giuseppe Bruno, has been imprisoned in Brazil since 2023. Starting in 2025, he entered into a cooperation agreement with the Federal Prosecutor's Office of Rio Grande do Norte and revealed the organization's role in importing hashish from Morocco via Spain.
Political repercussions
The president of Italy's Parliamentary Anti-Mafia Commission, Chiara Colosimo, described the action as "an extraordinarily important result in the fight against organized mafia crime and the financial networks fueled by drug trafficking and international money laundering." "Today is a great day for everyone, except for the mafiosi," she stated in a social media post.
The governor of Sicily, Renato Schifani, described the operation as "a very serious blow against the assets of the mafia" and stressed that the fight against organized crime "knows no pauses."
Who was Matteo Messina Denaro
Considered one of the most powerful bosses of Cosa Nostra For more than three decades, Messina Denaro remained a fugitive for 30 years before being captured in January 2023. He died in prison in September of the same year from cancer.
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