Italian police find $3.6 million in cash hidden in apartment's walls, floors and furniture

ROME — Italian authorities found $3.6 million hidden in the walls, floors and furniture at an apartment in Naples on Monday, in a dawn raid that led to the arrests of 34 people.

Anti-mafia law enforcement officials found the cash in bundles of 50-euro notes at an address in Caivano, according to a statement from the Naples Carabinieri military police to CNN.

The banknotes, which were wrapped in cellophane and stacked in neat rows under floor and wall tiles and in hidden drawers in wardrobe closets, were carried out in plastic mop buckets and placed in an armored vehicle.

Police also found 11 luxury Rolex watches, along with weapons and drug selling paraphernalia, officials said at a press conference Monday.

The raid was part of a months-long sting operation led by Neapolitan anti-mafia prosecutor Nicola Gratteri, who said on Monday that authorities had wire tapped the cellphones of incarcerated mobsters in prison, which had been smuggled in by relatives.

"To demonstrate the importance of the operation, in just one home, we seized €3.2 million in cash, as well as valuable watches," he told reporters in Naples on Monday.

Authorities said they were tipped off by informants who gave evidence to prosecutors in exchange for protection.

Those arrested are allegedly part of the notorious Angelino clan, which had infiltrated Caivano to such an extent the local government was put under judicial administration last year, Gratteri told CNN.

In 2023, an urban regeneration and crime-prevention scheme called the "Caivano Model" was introduced by Giorgia Meloni's government.

"The Caivano decree intends to identify a model of intervention that will apply immediately to Caivano and then, when conditions are right, to other degraded areas in the country," Cabinet Secretary Alfredo Mantovano said at a press conference in September 2023.

"It is a module that takes into consideration not only the scourge of juvenile crime, but also the offer of something positive and alternative to the street, to drug dealing," Mantovano added.

After Monday's arrests, several opposition party members pointed to the raid as a failure of the initiative. Opposition parliamentarian Francesco Borrelli of the Greens and Left Alliance said: "For months we have witnessed the prime minister and her ministers' parades, claiming a 'clean up' that, in our opinion, was actually portrayed as a definitive victory over organized crime. The reality that emerged from the investigation is different."

The 34 people arrested are accused of mafia-style crime association, drug trafficking, extortion and possession of drugs for the purpose of dealing, according to the Carabinieri statement.

In addition to the money, guns and watches, authorities say they were also able to uncover the methodology of the crime ring, which used what Gratteri called an "entrepreneurial" style, placing people on staggered shifts to carry out the alleged illegal activities, such as drug dealing and extortion.

The money that was retrieved will go to the country's "Justice Fund," which supports victims of organized crime. However, Gratteri, whose department has faced cuts from the government in recent months, joked that some of it should go to cover further wiretaps.

"I'm thinking of when the minister wants to reduce wiretaps to save money. But just today, with the €3.2 million found that will go directly to the Justice Fund, we've paid for a year's worth of wiretaps in Naples alone. And we need to carry out several more operations like this," he said.

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