£200 million mafia gang in London betting operation

A British betting firm has been reported to be used as a front to launder money according to Italian police who have rounded up dozens of memebers of the group and seized the company.

The London-based online betting site Paradise Bet has had its assets frozen as part of a three year operation to close down the Parisi mafia gang in Southern Italy. The police have now arrested 74 people and seized the business assets, land, and property.

Reports in Italy suggest that the operation was aided by Britain's Serious and Organised Crime Agency.

Lt Col Salvatore Russo, the police official in charge of the operation, also revealed that  an additional nine warrants were issued for suspects already jailed on separate charges, along with the arrests and closure of the company.

The confiscated assets total around €220 million (£200 million), officials said.

The 48-year-old head of the clan, Savino Parisi, was arrested on Monday night after being accused of attempted murder, drug trafficking, loan-sharking, interfering with the bidding process for public contracts and money laundering.

As well as Savino Parisi others implicated in the operation is the former deputy mayor of the city of Valenzano near Bari along with the city assessor.

Piero Grasso, a national anti-Mafia prosecutor, said the operation "showed the true face of criminality" in the southern Puglia region.

"It's a criminality that is projected in investments, in businesses that suck part of the resources of this land and invests it abroad," he added.

Parisi built a fortune based on a drug trafficking ring between Italy and Serbia and was recently freed from jail after serving a 14-year prison sentence.

Post jail Parisi continued his criminal organization, according to police, and "acquired full control of the territory and accumulated enormous wealth through crimes of every genre, from stealing trucks to kidnapping and loan-sharking with interest rates up to 300 percent."

"Sport&More" the sporting goods empire as well as Paradise Bet were also seized

In Palermo, Sicily, police issued arrest warrants for 11 people accused of helping the Cosa Nostra fugitive Salvatore Provenzano elude capture. Provenzano was eventually arrested in 2006.

One of his closest collaborators, identified by the Italian news agency ANSA as Simone Castello, 60, was arrested near Madrid, police said.

Separately in Naples, police seized €20 million (£18 million) in assets including a textile firm, land and apartments from the Somma-La Marca Camorra crime clan, a statement said.