Almost 100 Members Of Sicilian Mafia Under Trial For EU Farming Funds Scam - Reports

The trial of almost 100 members of the Sicilian mafia, the notorious Cosa Nostra, accused of large-scale EU agricultural subsidies fraud, began on Tuesday in the court in Messina, Italian media reported

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd March, 2021) The trial of almost 100 members of the Sicilian mafia, the notorious Cosa Nostra, accused of large-scale EU agricultural subsidies fraud, began on Tuesday in the court in Messina, Italian media reported.

The so-called "maxi trial" involves 97 people, including Cosa Nostra bosses, their affiliates in various professional fields and clan soldiers, ANSA news agency reported. The prosecution claims that Sicilian mobsters had fraudulently received over 10 million Euros ($12 million) in agricultural funds from the European Union since 2010 for "ghost" farmland in the Nebrodi region in the east of the island. Some of that land was either non-existent or owned by the Italian government, the investigation showed.

According to Messina prosecutor Maurizio de Lucia, the two historic Nebrodi clans, the Batanesis and the Bontempo Scavos, cooperated to receive "streams of EU funding" with the help of officials in the notary and local commercial agricultural centers.

"This scam deprived honest operators of huge public resources and gravely polluted the legal economy," the ANSA quoted de Lucia as saying.

The Sicilian police first arrested 94 people associated with Cosa Nostra in relation to the EU farming subsidiaries fraud during January 2020 raids. The scam had been an ongoing issue for several years, with many local farmers receiving threats and being forced to sell farmland to the mafia.