Jun.28, 2010

ROME, ITALY (AFP) - Italian financial police said on Monday it had arrested 24 and seized a vast array of assets in a major operation against money laundering by Chinese crime gangs.

Police arrested Chinese and Italian nationals across the country under suspicion of mafia association and took control of 73 companies and 181 pieces of real estate and seized 166 luxury cars, said a police statement.

Based around the city of Florence and the industrial town of Prato in the central region of Tuscany, the syndicate is said to have transfered hundreds of millions of euros from criminal activities to China through more than 100 companies, police said.

Tuscany has a large Chinese community, with about 30,000 Chinese living and working - often illegally - in the textile industry around Prato.