New Delhi, May 30 -- Italian authorities have seized more than 200 million euros ($232 million) in assets linked to the late mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro's drug trafficking network, in what anti-mafia prosecutors described Thursday as a blow to the Sicilian Mafia's attempts to rebuild its financial power.

The seizures included more than 12 kilograms (26 pounds) in gold bars, millions in cash, premium watches and some 20 luxury properties, investigators told a news conference.

Messina Denaro died in a prison hospital some nine months after he was arrested in January 2023, ending three decades as a fugitive. He had been tried in absentia and convicted in dozens of murders, including helping to mastermind a pair of 1992 bombings that k...