Mobsters flip to investing in herds of cows to launder cash

A crime boss has spilt the beans on mobsters investing their ill-gotten gains earned from casinos, nightclubs, and drugs in cattle farming.

The Fast & Furious crews from Cerignola, a small town in Italy, have earned themselves quite the reputation.

The mobsters are known to cover highways with nails to block armoured trucks robbing them armed with bazookas and Kalashnikovs before whizzing away in stolen lavish sports cars.

Jailed gangster, Marco Raduano, 40, who hails from the Gargano peninsula near Cerignola, has revealed thugs are using as many as 200 cows to launder money more easily.

Raduano, who was apprehended after fleeing jail using a string of knotted sheets last year, confessed to murdering five people, according to The Times.

Jailed crime boss Marco Raduano, 40, has revealed mobsters are using herds of cows to launder money more easily 

The turncoat revealed top gangsters of Fast & Furious crews have as many as 200 cows (stock image)

While doing so, he admitted that millions of euros stolen in motorway robberies were used to purchase hundreds of cows, which were then put in fields in Gargano.

‘Every boss had 200 to 300 cows each,’ he told magistrates. 

Ettore Cardinali, a magistrate investigating the gang, shared they have so far seized 150 of the farm animals, which they are now calling ‘mafia cows’.

‘The problem is that no one wanted to buy them due to fear of the mafia, so we have had to slaughter most of them,’ he added. 

But the new found interest in farming had nothing to do with turning over a new leaf, for a slower, crime-free life.

Raduano confessed the mobsters would invest the money from heists into the cows, and would then profit from selling their calves.

The new money laundering scheme also allowed criminals to apply for EU farming subsidies.

The ‘mafia cows’, which were permitted to graze in the national park in the area, also served as a perfect guise for gangsters to hide cars and weapons, according to Raduano. 

Raduano confessed the mobsters would invest the money from heists into the cows, and would then profit from selling their calves – it also meant they could apply for EU farming subsidies (pictured: Raduano escaping from prison using a string of bed sheets)

The ‘mafia cows’, which were permitted to graze in the national park land in the area, also served as a perfect guise for gangsters to hide cars and weapons (pictured: Raduano escaping from jail)

The livestock were also used to take over land belonging to farmers, according to Mr Cardinali. 

‘They sent the cows into the fields of farmers who would risk being beaten up if they touched the animals or having their property damaged and livestock killed if they even complained,’ he said.

‘The mob would follow the cows into these properties and take possession.’

Raduano said: ‘The cows can go on the roads or private land and no one can say or do anything.’

The use of cows for money laundering purposes was mastered by two brothers Antonio and Andrea Quitadamo who funneled their stolen heist cash into livestock, Raduano said.

The scheme was named the ‘Baffino method’ after the siblings who were referred to as the ‘Baffino’ or ‘little moustache’ brothers. 

Gargano gangs rose in notoriety during the 1970s gaining a bloody reputation, with one leader bragging he drank the blood of a man he murdered. 

‘The cows can go on the roads or private land and no one can say or do anything,’ Raduano said (pictured: an aerial view of Cerignola, Puglia)

Crime boss Raduano noted their use of cows to terrify local residents was comparable to ‘sacred’ livestock owned by the ’Ndrangheta mafia in Calabria.

The Calabria mobsters used their livestock to ‘stamp its authorities on communities’ with some herds boasting as many as 50 angry bulls, which weigh up to a tonne.

The Ndrangheta cows have trampled through crops  across the region over the last few years.

Some have even caused trains to come of the tracks, however scared locals do not complain.