国际英语新闻:Italy seizes supermarket chain worth 41 mln euros from businessman with mob ties

ROME, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Italian authorities in the Sicilian city of Catania have seized a supermarket chain worth 41 million euros from a businessman with ties to a local mafia clan, police reported Thursday.

"Seizure of illicit assets belonging to subjects close to Cappello-Bonaccorsi mafia clan," State Police tweeted. "Flying squad and Anti-crime Division have seized...a supermarket chain worth over 41 million euros," the tweet read.

The seizure of 13 stores belonging to a chain called G.M. Supermercati and other assets was carried out on orders of the anti-mafia division of the Catania prosecutor's office, news agency ANSA reported.

The supermarkets and other assets belong to 48-year-old Michele Guglielmino, who built a retail empire by laundering money for the mob, ANSA reported Catania prosecutors as telling a press conference.

Guglielmino has a criminal record and is a known drug trafficker. Other seized assets include land, villas, cars and bank accounts, according to ANSA. (1 euro = 1.19 U.S. dollars)