Some 80 finance police officers on Friday searched the premises 30 farm assistance centers that manage public financing requests. The operation began at dawn in Catania, Enna and Messina provinces and comes after Sicily's Parco dei Nebrodi nature reserve chief Giuseppe Antoci survived an assassination attempt last week. Antoci had been sent bullets in the mail for trying to stop Mafia farm businesses illegally using protected park land for grazing. The farm ministry is working to implement an anti-mafia protocol as a result.
Local farmers have reported they were cheated out of Italian and EU funds after they found out others claimed the money in their stead.
Finance police are running ID checks on farm assistance center employees, some of whom have police records, links to organized crime, and links to the Nebrodi reserve grazing concessions.
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