ROME: Italian police arrested 61 suspected members of Italy’s powerful mafia, the ‘Ndrangheta, in a series of raids across seven regions.
They’re suspected of crimes, including drug trafficking, fraud, government infiltration, and extorting local farmers.
More than 500 Italian police officers have involved in the operation, which targeted 167 persons – including dozens currently in prison.
The sting was part of the more comprehensive, ongoing operation to crack down on the group.
The previous week, more than a hundred people were arrested across Europe in what police said was the most extensive operation ever carried out against the ‘Ndrangheta.
Ten countries were involved, with assets worth €25m seized.
The investigation revealed crucial latest information about how some of the highest levels of the group operate – including during the Covid pandemic.
One of its alleged bosses, Pasquale Bonavota, was arrested in a cathedral in Genoa the previous month.
Hundreds of alleged mobsters and corrupt officials have been imprisoned and are still to be tried over their suspected involvement with the Mancuso family.
It is just one of the 150 families that form part of the ‘Ndrangheta’s criminal network. It has surpassed Cosa Nostra as the most powerful mafia group in the country and operates in more than forty countries around the globe.
Belgian and Italian investigators believe that the crime group smuggled nearly 25,000kg of cocaine between 2019 and 2022 and funnelled more than €22m from Calabria to Belgium, South America and the Netherlands.
