Cosa Nostra treasure found on Costa del Sol as police seize 200 million euro mafia fortune

Spain’s National Police collaborated with Italy's Guardia di Finanza to raid properties across Malaga, Marbella, Benahavís and Puerto Banús.

The multi-million euro assets belonged to the criminal network of Matteo Messina Denaro, the last historical "capo" of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra mafia, who died of cancer in prison in September 2023.

Three people have been arrested following the joint operation, which intercepted investments, cash, 12 kilograms of gold and shares in a Lebanese bank.

Among the seized items were 22 properties located in exclusive residential areas across the Costa del Sol, alongside five front companies used to launder money generated from drug trafficking since the 1980s.

The global financial network stretched across Spain, Andorra, Gibraltar, Switzerland, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Monaco and the Cayman Islands.

The investigation was launched after Andorran authorities flagged suspicious funds held by a woman from the Sicilian town of Campobello di Mazara.

Italian police praised the intense synergy with Spanish investigators, whose parallel phone taps and surveillance operations proved crucial to exposing the plot.

Chiara Colosimo, president of the Italian Parliamentary Anti-Mafia Commission, described the breakthrough as being of "extraordinary importance" in dismantling the wealth Denaro accumulated during his decades at the top of the Trapani crime clan.

Denaro was captured in January 2023 after spending 30 years on the run as one of Italy's most wanted fugitives. He was serving multiple life sentences for dozens of murders, including masterminding fatal bomb attacks.

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