Comment on Needing 'clean cash,' mobsters hungry for Rome's eateries

Needing 'clean cash,' mobsters hungry for Rome's eateries

Romeo is among several people under investigation for suspected false property registration in one of a growing number of investigations in which mobsters are suspected of systematically buying up Roman tourist restaurants to launder cocaine profits, allegedly installing people like Romeo as figurehead owners. Along Rome's narrow Via dei Pastini, a street thronging with tourists in search of quaint restaurants, authorities raided three trattorias, including Il Barroccio, this year as alleged fronts for money-laundering operations for the 'ndrangheta. Authorities say the financially savvy 'ndrangheta is hungry for legitimate businesses to launder the billions it rakes in from cocaine trafficking. While a few lawmakers might be avoiding the trattoria, Rome's status as the Italian political and administrative capital is an added attraction for the mob. The lobby group for Rome's 15,000 restaurants is alarmed by organized crime infiltration, saying that mobsters — unlike honest restaurateurs — have nearly unlimited funds to make establishments successful as eateries, not just fronts for organized crime. [...] in recent years, organized crime has been increasingly aiming to "make clean money from dirty money" by investing illicit revenues into legitimate sectors of the economy, said Lt.

 

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