Mob Ties Lead to Seizure of All Assets

(Palermo, Sicily) Check out this story.

Italian police on Friday seized assets worth some 100 million euros from the heirs of a dead construction boss suspected of links to jailed Cosa Nostra head Bernardo Provenzano.

It was the first time anti-Mafia police have applied a new law allowing confiscation of property from the heirs of the deceased.

The businessman, Salvatore Buttitta, died in August at the age of 83 leaving more than 200 plots of land around his quarries outside the city of Bagheria, 10 miles (15km) east of Palermo.

He also left his five heirs over 30 pieces of real estate in Palermo, Bagheria and seven other Sicilian cities.

It appears that the law allows the government to take everything Buttitta acquired, plus property he left for his heirs, even though there doesn't seem to be any evidence that the property was illegally obtained. In fact, Buttitta was acquitted of Mafia-association charges last February.

By confiscating all property, the new law sure seems like it would be effective in making the Mafia dons quite nervous.