Italian justice has launched an international operation targeting the assets accumulated over 40 years by mafia boss Matteo Messina, who died in September 2023 and was considered the last great boss of the Sicilian mafia. Spain, specifically the Costa del Sol, plays a prominent role in this investigation, with the National Police collaborating. So far, 22 properties of extraordinary value have been identified, many of them considered “genuine luxury resorts,” according to Italian authorities. These properties are located between Marbella, Benahavís, and Puerto Banús, some of the most exclusive areas of the Costa del Sol.
The operation is ongoing and coordinated by the Anti-Mafia Directorate of Palermo and carried out by agents of the Guardia di Finanza, the body responsible for investigating and preventing economic crimes. So far, three people have been arrested, placed in pre-trial detention, and companies and financial assets worth more than 200 million euros have been seized.
In addition to Italy, actions are being carried out in Andorra, Gibraltar, the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Lebanon, the Principality of Monaco, and Spain (in the cities of Málaga, Marbella, Benahavís, and Puerto Banús), according to a statement from the Guardia di Finanza. Searches have also been conducted in Málaga and Campobello di Mazara (a Sicilian town with 10,800 inhabitants).
The operation is the culmination of a complex investigation by the Economic-Financial Police Unit of Palermo, which reconstructed a vast fortune resulting from the reinvestment, in multiple European and non-European countries, of large capitals derived from drug trafficking, which prospered — since the 1980s — under the protection of the Cosa Nostra of the province of Trapani.
The investigation began following a communication from the authorities of Andorra that raised concerns about a woman from Campobello di Mazara who managed significant amounts of money. They later learned that she had been married to a high-level criminal drug trafficker, convicted multiple times, with close ties to the Cosa Nostra.
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Statements from several justice collaborators have been fundamental in the investigations. They explained how part of the money flow from drug trafficking was systematically allocated to the needs of the Castelvetrano clan and its own boss, Matteo Messina Denaro. Based on this, the hypothesis was raised that the funds in Andorra actually came from drug trafficking.
Starting from Andorra, the investigations expanded and established collaborations — also through the network of economic-financial experts of the Guardia di Finanza abroad — with Spain, Luxembourg, the Principality of Monaco, and Lebanon.
According to the investigation, drug trafficking money was reintroduced into the legal economy and is now distributed across different financial instruments, corporate holdings, bank accounts, as well as parent companies and other instruments to conceal ownership, mainly in Spain, Luxembourg, the Principality of Monaco, the Cayman Islands, Lebanon, and Gibraltar. The investigation identified eight foreign companies, five of them in Spain, two in Gibraltar, and one in the Cayman Islands, mainly used as vehicles for real estate investment and asset management.
Regarding the assets, numerous bank accounts and securities portfolios worth approximately 12.5 million euros have been detected, with evidence even from old times, in addition to holding significant stakes in the capital of a Lebanese bank. Investments were also spread across the purchase of precious materials, involving more than 12 kilos of gold.
