Police in Sicily arrest suspected mafia members over EU subsidies fraud

Alleged mobsters among 37 people arrested as part of investigation into interception of agricultural funding

Police on the Italian island of Sicily have arrested 37 people, some of them alleged mafia members, as part of an investigation into a large-scale fraud involving EU agricultural subsidies.

After a previous investigation, 91 individuals were convicted in November 2022 for fraudulently receiving more than €5m (£4.3m) in subsidies between 2010 and 2017. The subsidies included funds for thousands of hectares of “ghost” farmland in the eastern part of Sicily, which either did not exist, had been stolen from farmers, or was owned by the Italian state or regional government.