Rome, May 20 (IANS/AKI): Police in southern Italian have seized assets worth 47 million euros from a local businessman who was reportedly backed by the mafia.
The assets seized in Reggio Calabria city from Salvatore Domenico Tassone, 63, includes companies, land, bank accounts and personal and company vehicles.
Tassone acquired the assets through backing from the mafia in tenders for public work contracts, including the upgrading of a highway, investigators said.
Tassone was in July 2009 sentenced to eight years in prison for association with the mafia. But, he appealed, and under Italy's laws, sentences are not definitive until two levels of appeal have been exhausted.
He has also been linked with several local criminal families.