Italian police dismantle 'ghost bank' that moved up to €100m a year for drug cartels and mafia
Italian authorities have dismantled a clandestine bank in Prato that used an untraceable payment system to move between €80 and €100 million annually for drug trafficking and black-market goods over at least three years.
The operation
Police in Italy, working with Spanish counterparts, arrested 41 individuals and seized assets worth around €60 million after uncovering an underground bank that served as a global financial broker for organised crime. The operation, led by the Florence Anti-Mafia Directorate (DDA) and the Prato prosecutor’s office, targeted a network that had been active since at least 2021, routing illegal payments across Europe without physically moving cash.
A parallel banking system
The bank relied on the hawala system, known in China as chop-shop or 'flying money', an informal value-transfer mechanism based on trust among intermediaries. Couriers collected dirty cash in Italy and, using a dense web of contacts in Spain, France and Portugal, settled payments abroad by drawing on black-market proceeds rather than transporting physical currency. Investigators believe the network moved €80–100 million per year, mixing drug money with the unrecorded cash flows of Prato’s Chinese-run fast-fashion textile companies. Factories in Madrid, Malaga, Valencia and Seville were part of the compensation circuit.
"Le indagini rilevano l'esistenza di un sistema bancario parallelo e clandestino che serve a molteplici scopi," said national anti-mafia prosecutor Giovanni Melillo during a press conference. He added that the structure integrated different criminal and foreign organisations, describing Albanian groups as "extraordinary actors in money laundering and drug trafficking."
Criminal clients
Police stated the bank offered "secure channels for paying for huge drug consignments without any physical movement of cash and guaranteeing total anonymity of financial flows." Three distinct criminal associations allegedly benefited: one dedicated to laundering drug proceeds, one to international narcotics trafficking, and a third to smuggling Chinese migrants into Italy. Among the Italian clients were the Briganti clan of Lecce (Sacra Corona Unita), the ’ndrina Fiare-Razionale-Gasparro from Vibo Valentia, and the Camorra’s Aquino-Annunziata group. Albanian trafficking organisations, described as major clients, used the bank to recycle their own drug revenues.
The human smuggling route
A branch of the organisation ran an illegal immigration network that flew Chinese nationals to Belgrade, Serbia, which lies outside the Schengen zone, before transporting them or forcing them to march through mountainous terrain to the Hungarian border and onward to the EU. Destinations included Prato, Turin, and the province of Verona. Migrants were charged up to €9,500 per journey, according to police.
Official response
The investigating judge ordered the precautionary seizure of assets worth approximately €60 million. Of the 41 measures issued, 17 were pre-trial detention orders, 16 were house arrests, and eight required regular reporting to judicial police. In total, 57 individuals were placed under investigation. The accused face charges of criminal conspiracy with mafia facilitation, money laundering, abusive banking activity, international drug trafficking, and aiding illegal immigration.
