Swiss Authorities are charging 10 people in laundering over $1 billion in a Mafia controlled cigarette smuggling ring.

From the AP (via the Seattle Times):

Switzerland’s top prosecutor charged 10 people with laundering more than $1 billion dollars during a decade-long mafia cigarette smuggling operation, Swiss authorities said Monday.

The defendants - five Swiss, three Italians, a Spaniard and a Frenchman - are accused of having used Switzerland as a hub for laundering money from Italy’s powerful Camorra and Sacra Corona Unita organizations, the office of the Federal Prosecutor said.

They were also charged with supporting or participating in a criminal organization.

The defendants were not identified because of Switzerland’s privacy laws.

Earlier, however, attorneys for three of the defendants in the southern, Italian-speaking canton (state) of Ticino identified them as Fredi Bossert, owner of a money exchange business; financier Franco Della Torre; and his Italian colleague, Michele Antonio Varano.

The 10 are accused of having laundered well in excess of $1 billion in Ticino from the early 1990s until 2001, the prosecutor’s office said.