Lecce court orders seizure of assets linked to alleged illegal betting network

A court in Lecce ordered the seizure on Wednesday of at least €600,000 in assets linked to Tobia Parisi and his family, at the request of anti-mafia prosecutors, according to the Carabinieri. The order is aimed at eventual confiscation. Parisi, 45, is accused of being a senior figure in the Mesagne faction of the Sacra Corona Unita, the Puglia-based mafia organisation, and a lieutenant to mafia boss Daniele Vicientino.

Investigators allege that the Free Time Lounge Bar in Mesagne, a town near Brindisi, was a logistical base for the clan and a control centre for clandestine sports betting. The bar and its roughly 10,800-square-foot building were among the targets. The order also covered a car sales business in nearby Carovigno, including its vehicles, which police say Parisi controlled through a front person.

A luxury flat in Brindisi, listed in the name of Parisi's partner and said to have been acquired with the proceeds of crime, was taken along with vehicles, bank accounts, savings deposits and prepaid cards. Police further pointed to a villa in the countryside near Torre Santa Susanna, which they claim gave Vicientino refuge during the period he was evading capture.

The asset probe came after a police raid on December 15, 2025, which was directed at the Pasimeni-Vitale-Vicientino clan. According to investigators, that group's suspected dealings went past illegal gambling into drug trafficking, extortion and loan-sharking. A review of Parisi's past, officers say, showed over 25 years of alleged criminal activity, and checks on his finances turned up a wide gap between what his family reported earning and what it owned.

Puglia was where the Sacra Corona Unita first appeared, in the early 1980s. Its criminal focus began with smuggling and drugs, and later it moved into gambling markets. The operation, authorities said, formed part of wider work to strip mafia groups of the wealth their criminal enterprises produce.