Image: HANDOUT (ITALIAN CARABINIERI PRESS OFFICE)
The mafiosi are said to belong to the Calabrian mafia ‘Ndrangheta and are held responsible, among other things, for international drug and arms trafficking, including weapons of war, as well as fraud and money laundering.
Prominent members of the notorious Nirta-Strangio clan were arrested as part of the raid, judicial authorities said. Hundreds of carabinieri in several Italian provinces were involved.
The ‘Ndrangheta is one of the most dangerous, richest and most powerful mafia groups in Italy. It is said to control a large part of the global cocaine trade. In the past three decades, the organization has spread further and further into northern Italy, where it uses, among other things, regularly registered companies for money laundering.
Several people were also arrested in Germany on the basis of a European arrest warrant, as the Italian carabinieri announced on Wednesday, according to news agencies. European arrest warrants were also executed against six people in Belgium, three in France and one each in Portugal, Romania and Spain.
A court in the port city of Reggio Calabria had issued more than 100 arrest warrants at the request of the anti-mafia prosecutor. The bulk of the accused was in Italy
Source: Nachrichten
