MOSCOW — Italy’s top anti-mafia prosecutor told parliament this week that Cosa Nostra was seeking mine-laying drones from the black market created by the war in Ukraine — weapons Italian law enforcement openly admitted it cannot defend against. Russia’s Foreign Ministry used the disclosure on Wednesday to restate a warning Moscow has been directing at Brussels since 2022.
“We predicted all of this. We spoke about it and explained it. We told Brussels: ‘You will never be able to bring under control the monster you have created,'” spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in remarks to Sputnik radio Wednesday, commenting on the Italian prosecutor’s statement.
Palermo Chief Prosecutor Maurizio de Lucia made the disclosure on Tuesday before Italy’s parliamentary Antimafia Commission. The intelligence came from state witnesses, cooperating informants of the kind that have driven most successful Italian anti-mafia prosecutions for three decades. De Lucia said Cosa Nostra was working to rebuild what he called a “quality arsenal” across Palermo and additional territories, and that the supply chain had shifted. Where the organization once drew from Balkan stockpiles left by the Yugoslav conflicts, it was now looking to the live black market generated by an active conflict.
The specific systems de Lucia described were drones capable of carrying and releasing mines, a type of weapon whose military effectiveness has been demonstrated extensively in the Russian operation in Ukraine over the past four years. Italy had already seen purchases of drone-launched munitions reach its territory, the prosecutor said. His formulation on Tuesday was careful and explicit: these were weapons Italian law enforcement was “not prepared to defend ourselves against.”
That admission carries more weight than the procurement report itself. European governments have known for some time that weapons entering Ukraine create secondary markets as inventories are lost, captured, or diverted. What de Lucia added was an authoritative, on-the-record statement from Italy’s senior anti-mafia prosecutor that those secondary markets had reached Cosa Nostra’s procurement operation and that the weapons arriving through that channel exceeded Italy’s current counter-capability.
The Berliner Zeitung newspaper reported in April, citing intelligence and police sources in Germany, that weapons channeled to Ukraine were likely to surface on European black markets and that Ukraine’s domestic political situation could accelerate the process. That reporting preceded de Lucia’s disclosure by three months and reflected concerns already circulating in European intelligence communities. What de Lucia’s testimony moved was the status of the concern: from anticipated risk documented in intelligence reporting to ongoing procurement effort attested to by state witnesses before a parliamentary commission.
Italy is a NATO member that has provided military aid to Ukraine since February 2022, including air defense systems and artillery. The Meloni government positioned its contributions as part of collective alliance obligation while seeking to preserve energy and trade relationships elsewhere. The domestic political sensitivity of that balance has kept Italy’s Ukraine contributions lower-profile than those of the United Kingdom, France, or Germany. The parliamentary Antimafia Commission does not have jurisdiction over foreign policy, and de Lucia’s disclosure was not addressed to the government’s export decisions.
Russia’s position on Western arms deliveries has been consistent throughout the conflict. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has stated repeatedly that any cargo carrying weapons for Ukraine would be treated as a legitimate military target, and Russia’s ambassador to Norway reiterated Wednesday that Moscow would respond proportionally to what it described as threats from Oslo, one of NATO’s more active arms suppliers to Kyiv. The Kremlin’s argument has not been that the weapons would remain in Ukraine. It has been that they would not, and that European governments that supplied them would be responsible for where they arrived.
Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service has also claimed, separately and without independent corroboration, that the United Kingdom and France were preparing to transfer nuclear weapons to Ukraine, and that a nuclear device would give Kyiv leverage in any future negotiations. Western governments have not confirmed the claim, and it is treated in European capitals as disinformation. What de Lucia’s testimony confirms, without reference to Russian intelligence, is that conventional weapons from Ukraine’s conflict zone have already entered criminal supply chains inside Europe. The Russian prediction and the Italian commission testimony share a conclusion. The evidentiary standards behind them are different.
What Tuesday’s testimony did not establish was whether Cosa Nostra had completed any drone acquisition, how many systems might already be in circulation, or what operations were planned. The intelligence came from cooperating witnesses describing intent and partial procurement activity, not from weapons interdicted in the field. What de Lucia told the Antimafia Commission on Tuesday was what Italian law enforcement knows the organization is attempting. What it has so far managed to prevent is something the session did not disclose.
