Ten people were arrested on Tuesday as part of an international anti-crime operation across Italy, Germany and the Netherlands.
The suspects, almost all Sicilian emigrants resident in Germany, are accused of defrauding the German tax authorities of 17 million euros and laundering the money in Italy. They include Rocco Morgana, 24, and Salvatore Benintende, 68, who investigators consider to be the masterminds of the organisation. They were arrested on charges of tax fraud, issuing false invoices and exploiting illegal labour in league with their eight presumed accomplices. Police also carried out searches and seized assets worth over 1.5 million euros as part of the operation, which grew out of a probe dating to 2006.
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