Eight arrested in Italy's €57m Marche earthquake-reconstruction mafia raids

Italy’s financial police have unveiled a major anti-mafia operation targeting fraud in the post-2016-earthquake reconstruction of the Marche, with eight custodial arrests, 51 people under investigation and asset seizures exceeding €57 million.

Operation “Ricostruzione”, led by the Guardia di Finanza’s Ancona provincial command and coordinated by the anti-mafia directorate (DDA), exposed what investigators describe as an illicit system in contracts for private reconstruction after the 2016 quake, according to ANSA (ilnordest.it). A judge of the Ancona court ordered the eight prison custodial measures, alongside preventive interrogations for five further people, Italpress reports (radiolombardia.it).

Investigators say reconstruction works were subcontracted to people connected to Calabrian (‘Ndrangheta) and Campanian (Camorra) organised crime, while a second strand of the probe covers corruption by public officials and entrepreneurs over tenders issued by Regione Marche, ERDIS Marche and the University of Camerino, Adnkronos reports (ilcorrieredibologna.it).

More than 230 officers are executing over 50 searches across 13 provinces — Ancona, Macerata, Pesaro-Urbino, Fermo, Roma, Caserta, Napoli, Reggio Calabria, Modena, Terni, Chieti, Treviso and Piacenza — in the largest such sweep of the reconstruction sector in the region.