Police smash Italian mobsters' fraud scam

Italian police say they have broken up an insurance fraud run by a crime syndicate that counted on the collusion of doctors, lawyers and car repair shop owners.

Rodolfo Ruperti, a police official based in Catanzaro, a stronghold of the Calabria-based 'ndrangheta' syndicate, said today the bosses of its Giampa’ clan used the scheme’s proceeds – millions of euros annually – to pay the “salaries” of rank-and-file mobsters.