A €200 MILLION mafia fortune has been traced to Marbella, where two well known locals have been arrested as part of an international investigation.
Local businessman Luca Tamburello and his mother Maria Bruno were picked up today by national police in connection to the case.
Another man, believed to be Luca’s father, Giovanni Tamburello, 65, was arrested in Campobello di Mazara in Italy.
The investigation centres on the drug-trafficking fortune of former godfather Matteo Messina Denaro.
The feared Sicilian mafia boss was arrested in 2023 after spending three decades on the run before later dying from cancer in prison.
Italian police confirmed they have seized over €200 million worth of assets believed to be linked to Denaro.
Investigators have followed the money trail to the Costa del Sol, long nicknamed the ‘Costa Nostra’ due to its links to Italian mafias.
Italian and Spanish police have so far seized 22 properties linked to Denaro’s fortune across Marbella, Puerto Banus and Benahavis, many of them luxury villas.
Olive Press Sources confirmed that 42-year-old Luca Tamburello and 62-year-old Maria Antonia Bruno were arrested this morning.
They have been charged with money laundering after authorities uncovered links to investment companies, real estate companies and luxury villas on the Costa del Sol connected to Denaro’s network.
Investigators have so far identified eight companies allegedly used for real estate investment and asset management, including two based in Gibraltar and six in Spain.
The arrests and asset seizures underline just how far Denaro’s fortune infiltrated the Costa del Sol.
Denaro is said to have led the notorious Sicilian Cosa Nostra mafia from the 1980s and remained at the helm of the organisation while wanted by the authorities from 1993.
Thirty years later, he was arrested in Sicily and died in prison nine months later in September 2023.
During his time in charge, he is believed to have amassed a drug-trafficking fortune estimated at around €4 billion, funnelled through an international money-laundering network.
The €200 million asset seizure represents one of the largest anti-mafia operations in Italian history, although the full extent of Denaro’s wealth may never be known.
It is believed that his financial reach could extend even further into the Costa del Sol.
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