Anti-Mafia police seize celebrities' favourite eateries in Rome

Dozens of photos of Italy's rich and famous grace the walls of Pizza Ciro in central Rome - actresses, football players, even former prime minister Mario Monti and celebrated anti-Mafia prosecutor Antonio Ingroia.

Now the pizzeria, along with 20 other well-known eateries in the historic heart of the city, is under special court administration after police raids this week. Those raids, together with seizures in Naples and Tuscany, netted an estimated €250m in property and assets believed to be under the control of the Mafia.

Arrest warrants were issued for 90 people accused of being linked to the Contini clan, part of the Neapolitan Mafia known as the Camorra. One suspect, a businessman, leapt to his death from the fourth floor of his home in Rome as police burst in.

The raids, which followed a two-year investigation , revealed what many Romans have long suspected - that organised crime has spread its tentacles from its southern heartlands deep into the capital and beyond.

Prosecutors allege the restaurants were used for money-laundering to "clean" some of the illicit funds stemming from drug-running, extortion rackets, usury and other operations that earn Italy's three main Mafia groups an estimated €100bn annually.

Pizza Ciro was still serving as normal on Friday with customers, mostly foreign tourists, oblivious to its seizure the day before. The staff and manager remain but are now working under a court-appointed administrator with the aim of saving jobs.

"Yes, many famous people come here," said a man who identified himself as the manager, pointing to the pictures on the walls. "We will defend ourselves," he said.

Sabrina Alfonsi, head of the borough council in Rome's historic centre, rang alarm bells in November when he claimed that as many as 70 per cent of the bars and restaurants in the area were in the hands of organised crime.

A combination of high rents and a deep recession has forced many indebted owners to sell up, giving the cash-rich Mafia the opportunity to move in and strengthen its grip by undermining honest competitors through price-cutting, when making a profit is not the mob's first priority.

Prosecutors said their drawn-out investigation was complicated by the use of front companies and figurehead owners as well as false bankruptcies that muddied the trail.

Franco Roberti, national anti-Mafia prosecutor in Rome, said the operation was the most significant investigation to date into the complex money-laundering activity of the Contini mob, masterminded by Edoardo Contini, who has been in jail since 2007.

Pizza Ciro was highly rated, judging by entries on TripAdvisor. One reads: "Recommended by family friends in Naples for true Neapolitan cuisine in Rome . . . Did not disappoint."

To help foreign tourists join the fight against the Mafia, the British embassy in Rome has sponsored an English-language guide to bars, restaurants, shops and companies in southern Italy, organised by a group of Italian "anti-racket" NGOs, advertising businesses that have refused to pay extortion money to the Mafia. A further guide to Rome is being planned.

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