11mn euros of assets seized from mafia convict

Rome July 20 (IANS/AKI) Italian tax police on Thursday impounded property worth more than 11 million euros from convicted murderer and alleged Sicilian mafia associate Giacomo Gabriele Stanzu as well as from members of his family.

The seized assets included 349 hectares of land eight buildings 10 vehicles bank and post office accounts police said.

The seizures were executed on the orders of a court in the eastern Sicilian city of Enna and followed a probe by police in the neighbouring provinces of Enna and Caltanissetta that was coordinated by anti-mafia prosecutors in Caltanissetta.

Stanzu 57 is serving a 14-year jail term for murder and allegedly has close ties to mafia clans in Enna and in Gela in the province of Caltanissetta.

On Wednesday police arrested 34 Sicilian mafia suspects in several Italian regions and seized assets worth some 60 million euros including companies and vehicles.

Also on Wednesday police impounded over 1.5 million euros of assets belonging to jailed Sicilian mafia "boss of bosses" Toto Riina and members of his family mainly in the provinces of Palermo and Trapani including a villa plots of land bank assets and three companies.

--IANS/AKI
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