Italy Busts Chinese Underground Bank Used By Drug Cartels, Mafia

Italian police said Monday they had dismantled an underground bank used by drug traffickers through which several hundred million euros are believed to have moved over at least three years. 

The clandestine bank, whose logistical base was located in Prato, northwest of Florence, has been run since 2021 by a Chinese national. The operation acted as a "global broker at the service of organised crime, offering secure channels for paying for huge drug consignments without any physical movement



of cash and guaranteeing total anonymity of financial flows," police said in a statement.

The circuit, which made it possible to "virtually transfer capital between Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands through a network of intermediaries who retained a commission", managed to move between 80-100 million euros per year for at least three years, police said. Drug cartels, such as Albanian trafficking organisations active in Italy, and the Italian mafia, were clients, it said.