MILAN -- The hands of the ‘ndrangheta, the organised crime group centred in Calabria, have been found in the Chinese pavilion and in the Arese supermarket of the Milan Expo 2015, as the Financial Guard retrieve 15 million euros from mafiosa families Il Fatto Quotidiano reports Tuesday.

 The Chinese and Ecuadorian pavilions are to be retrieved from the hands of the ‘ndrangheta. It has been revealed from evidence uncovered by the Financial Guard that shadows of the workings of mafia groups loomed over the 2015 Expo, the large international exposition hosted by Milan.

 The ‘Rent’ investigative operation, headed by the Financial Guard, has taken back 15 million euros from the hands of mafioso families Aquino-Coluccio and Piromalli-Bellocco. The blitz crossed various Italian provinces including Milan, Calabria, Catanzaro, Catania, Bergamo, Bologna, Brescia and Mantova. Numerous arrests were made for Mafia association, laundering, extortion, induction of prostitution and illegal possession of firearms.

 The inquest surrounds a Calabrian criminal group which appear to have infiltrated important activities throughout the Expo event. Plus, one brotherhood in Lombardy were involved in diverse underground economic activities, whilst also some ‘anonymous societies from North Italy’ were involved in the workings of the Chinese and Ecuadorian stalls, surrounding urbanization works and the basic infrastructure of the Expo fair 2015 through subcontract labour for the ‘Northern railway’ society, the Arese supermarket and the Bereguardo Union.

 The Italian police force Fiamme Gialle have repossessed property (apartments and small bars), furniture, luxury vehicles, motocycles, trucks to the total of 15 million euros. Overall, around 30 suspected mafiosa members are being investigated under the prosecutor Federico Cafiero De Raho. The main suspects are Salvatore Piccoli, Giuseppe Gentile, Antonio Stefano, Graziano Macri and Pasquale Giacobbe.

 The organised crime societies or ‘brotherhoods’, including Aquino-Coluccio and Piromalli-Bellocco, are thought to be operating worldwide, not just in Italy, particularly in Romania and Morocco.

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