Italian authorities have confiscated assets worth an estimated 50 million euros from the estate of a deceased mafia boss, prompting praise from the British government for its ongoing crackdown on organised crime. The seizure, announced by the Italian police on Monday, includes luxury villas in Sicily, high-performance sports cars, and bank accounts linked to the late Salvatore “The Fox” Marino, a reputed leader of the Cosa Nostra who died in 2023. The operation, code-named “Clean Slate,” was the culmination of a three-year investigation into Marino’s financial network, which spanned Italy, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates.
British Home Secretary Sarah Clarke welcomed the move, stating that it “demonstrates the unwavering commitment of our European partners to dismantle the financial infrastructure of organised crime.” The United Kingdom has itself intensified efforts to combat money laundering, with new legislation targeting illicit wealth passing through London’s property market. The Italian case illustrates the increasing use of asset forfeiture as a tool against mafia organisations, which experts say is more effective than incarceration alone.
Marino’s villas, including a hilltop estate overlooking Palermo, will be repurposed for community use, while his fleet of cars will be auctioned, with proceeds directed to anti-mafia education programmes. The seizure is part of a broader European trend: in 2024, EU member states collectively confiscated 1.2 billion euros in criminal assets, a 15 per cent increase from the previous year.
However, critics argue that asset recovery remains slow and that many mafia-linked fortunes remain hidden offshore. For the UK, the seizure represents a tangible victory in the fight against cross-border organised crime, which costs the British economy an estimated 37 billion pounds annually. As Clarke put it: “When we choke off the money, we starve the criminal enterprise.
