Big cheese arrested over alleged mafia ties
Police arrest the head of Italy’s biggest mozzarella company on suspicion of links to the Mafia.
Giuseppe Mandara, the big cheese of the Mandara Group, allegedly received financial backing from the notorious Casalesi clan of the Camorra mafia based around the city of Naples.
Investigators said the Camorra mafia bailed out Mandara, who called himself the “Giorgio Armani of mozzarella”, when he hit financial troubles in the 1980s, and have financed his dominance of the Italian cheese market.
The entire company, with assets estimated to be in excess of €100m, was seized by police on Tuesday.
Mandara is also accused of misleading consumers by mixing cows milk with more expensive buffalo milk, and of labelling ordinary provolone cheese as a more prestigious kind.
He was arrested alongside three colleagues by Naples anti-mafia police in an operation code-named “Buffalo”.
Mozzarella magnate
Italian media reports said the Mandara Group produced two tonnes of buffalo mozzarella a day for the Italian and international markets.
The company is a part of the Alival group of cheese makers, and is described by Alival as having a “professional culture” from more than three generations of buffalo mozzarella producers.
Buffalo mozzarella sells in Italy for around €12 per kilo and can cost more than twice as much abroad.
