News / National
Italian Mafia smuggles $450 million Zimbabwean diamonds
27 Apr 2015 at 03:15hrs | Views
A Sicilian Mafia clique, working with Zimbabwean businesspersons, allegedly smuggled one million carats of diamonds worth up to $450 million from Chiadzwa in 2011, the Sunday Mail reported.
An extensive investigation by the African Network of Centres for Investigative Reporting (ANCIR) and Investigative Reporting Project Italy says Mafia kingpin Antonio Messicati Vitale - who has been arrested in Italy for murder, illegal arms trading, human trafficking, money laundering and drug dealing, among other charges - operated through a company called Zimbabwe Diamond Opportunity.
Messicati Vitale (43) of the Corleonesi Mafia clan, together with his relatives Salvatore Ferrante, Pina Ferrante and her now ex-lover Mr Louis Liebenberg, as well as Zimbabwean businessman Billy Tanhira, formed the company.
Messicati Vitale, a mobster of the Villabate crime family in Palermo, brought a group of Swiss and Bulgarian bankers to Zimbabwe in January 2011.
Source - Sunday Mail
