Italy's crackdown on Chinese mafia as one city engulfed in fast fashion war

Australia Broadcast Center

04-08-2025

Italian police arrested 13 people following a nationwide sweep against Chinese mafia groups on Monday, as violence between competing families turned deadly.
The arrests included charges such as drug dealing, sex trafficking and aggravated robbery, police said.
Raids took place in 25 provinces, including Milan, Rome, Florence, Prato and Catania, anti-organised crime police official Andrea Olivadese said.
A further 31 people were reported by police to judicial authorities, although they were not arrested.
Around 550 grams or 5,500 doses of "shabu" crystal methamphetamines were also seized.
The gangs' crimes tend to target fellow Chinese, and, like traditional mafias, they "resort to intimidation and/or violence to achieve their goals" and seek to dominate the territory where they operate, police said.
The Chinese mob groups operate "with a deeply rooted concept of revenge that can take the form of a feud," they added.
The rise of the Chinese mafia in Italy has been particularly felt in the Tuscan city of Prato, where various groups are warring for control of Europe's largest apparel manufacturing centre.
The gangs are battling to control the production of hundreds of millions of clothes hangers each year — the market is estimated to be worth 100 million euros ($178 million) — and the bigger prize of transporting apparel.
The ex-head of Prato's police investigative unit, Francesco Nannucci, said the Chinese mafia run betting dens, prostitution and drugs — and provide their Italian counterparts with under-the-radar money transfers.
For mafia leaders, "to be able to command in Prato means being able to lead in much of Europe," Mr Nannucci told AFP.
The battle for the city has turned deadly, with one Prato mafia associate shot dead in April while walking the streets of Rome.
With one of Europe's largest Chinese communities, the city of nearly 200,000 people has seen Chinese business owners and factory workers beaten or threatened in recent months, with cars and warehouses burned.
The situation has become so urgent that Prato's prosecutor, Luca Tescaroli, has appealed to Rome for help, calling for an anti-mafia division and reinforcements for judges and police.
The arrests announced on Monday follow separate investigations exposing alleged worker abuse in Italy's Chinese-owned workshops in the supply chain of luxury brands such as Valentino, Giorgio Armani and Loro Piana.
Prato's 5,000-odd apparel and knitwear businesses, mostly small, Chinese-run subcontractors, churn out low-priced items that end up in shops across Europe.
They pop up quickly and shut down just as fast, playing a cat-and-mouse game with authorities to avoid taxes or fines.
Fabric is smuggled from China, evading customs duties and taxes, while profits are returned to China via illegal money transfers, police say.
To stay competitive, the sector relies on cheap, around-the-clock labour, mostly from China and Pakistan, which Mr Tescaroli told a Senate committee in January was "essential for its proper functioning".
Reuters/AFP