Sting unwittingly employed mafia builders January 17, 2014 - 11:25AM Singer Sting performs on stage. Rome: The pop singer Sting unwittingly employed a company with alleged links to the Italian mafia to carry out work on a 360-hectare estate he owns in Tuscany. The British singer unknowingly hired the firm, which police say was controlled by the Naples-based Camorra mafia, to restore six cottages on the 16th century Il Palagio estate near Florence. The cottages, clustered around the main house in which Sting lives with his wife, Trudie Styler, can be rented out by the public for $11,000 a week each. Police said two mafia-controlled companies, GGF and PDP Construction, were based in the nearby town of San Giovanni Valdarno and were also hired to carry out restoration work on the world-famous Uffizi Galleries in Florence. The firms were allegedly run by Giovanni Potenza, 62, who was found guilty in 2007 of having links to the Camorra. The Camorra has extended its reach far beyond its traditional stronghold in Naples and its hinterland, but the extent to which it has infiltrated apparently legitimate enterprises in Tuscany, long a favourite destination for British tourists, came as a surprise to investigators. The two companies were able to offer competitive rates and undercut honest rivals because they had evaded more than $4.6 million in taxes over the past five years, police said. The revelations came after an investigation in Italy that ended on Wednesday with the arrest of six people. Clients of the companies said they had no idea of possible mafia links.