THREE NICASTRI GIRLS

Three Nicastri girls just lost an inheritance

Italian police have seized over €1.5 billion ($1.9 billion) in assets -- the nation's largest sting ever -- from a Sicilian businessman believed to have ties to the Mafia, the Italian news agency ANSA reported Tuesday.

Vito Nicastri, who owns a variety of alternative-energy businesses that focus on wind and solar power, is thought to have funded groups and operations within the Mafia.

Nicastri has been linked to Matteo Messina Denaro, believed to be Mafia's current "boss of bosses," according to General Antonio Girone, head of the national anti-Mafia agency DIA.

The seizure was the largest ever under Italy's current anti-Mafia laws, according to officials from the DIA.

Among the assets seized were more than 40 wind and solar power companies registered in Sicily and Calabria.

Nicastri has been in federal custody since 2009, when he was arrested with three others in an investigation that led to the raids Tuesday.