Italy Says Busts China Money Laundering, European Metals Scam

Italy Says Busts China Money Laundering, European Metals Scam
A 500 euros banknote in a file photo. Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images
|Updated:

Italian police said on Wednesday they had broken up a complex money laundering operation and an illegal metal recycling business that had enabled criminals to transfer huge amounts of illicit cash between Italy and China.

The three-year investigation, coordinated by the anti-mafia prosecutor’s office in the northeastern city of Trieste, showed the enormous lengths gangs were having to go to in order to clean ill-gotten gains, police said.