The seizure of a record 1.5 billion euros from a Sicilian businessman known as "Lord of the Wind" has put the spotlight on Mafia money-laundering through renewable energy ventures.
"The Mafia use clean energy to invest dirty money," Sicilian journalist Lirio Abbate told AFP after police confiscated the assets from businessman Vito Nicastri on Tuesday.
The haul included no fewer than 43 wind and solar energy companies and around 100 properties including swank villas with swimming pools in Sicily's western Trapani region, along with cars, a catamaran and bank accounts, the interior ministry said.
The infiltration of organised crime into the renewable energy sector is "a combination that is only now coming to light" in terms of legal action, said Abbate, a specialist in Mafia affairs who is under police protection.
In the countryside it's been apparent for longer because wind farms are springing up on land belonging to people with ties to Mafia or obtained through violence
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