'Lady Oil' gets 13 yrs in jail

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 12 - A 'petrol mafia' ringleader known as 'Lady Oil' was sentenced to 13 years and two months in jail on Wednesday in a case spanning Catanzaro, Reggio Calabria and Naples.
    The preliminary hearings judge (GUP) said the woman, Anna Bettozzi aka Ana Bettz, had been one of the leading figures in the vast 'Petrol Mafie SpA' probe.
    The GUP handed down eight other sentences ranging from nine years and four months to four years and two months.
    Bettozzi, the widow of oilman Sergio Di Cesare, was among 70 people arrested in April last year for mafia association involving the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta mafia, money laundering and tax fraud on petroleum products.
    Some one billion euros in assets were seized including plants owned by the Made Petrol Italia Srl company, formerly known as Max Petroli, which Bettozzi was running.
    The seized assets included property, companies and cash.
    Police said 'Ndrangheta clans wanted to seal a deal to import gas and oil from Kazakhstan with the biggest Kazakh oil company, KMG.
    Bettozzi, 63, known by her stage name as Ana Bettz, is also a singer-songwriter, dancer, and former real estate agent.
    'Ndrangheta is Italy's richest and most powerful mafia thanks to its control of most of the European cocaine trade. (ANSA).