Italy cracks down on ‘ndrangheta crime group, drug traffickers

By Giovanni Legorano

ROME (AA) - Italian police on Wednesday arrested 61 people accused of being members of the powerful ‘ndrangheta organized crime group, based in the country’s “toe” region of Calabria.

Under the investigation coordinated by Nicola Gratteri, a veteran anti-mafia prosecutor based in Catanzaro, Calabria’s capital, the arrestees are suspected of committing a host of crimes ranging from extortion to robbery and drug trafficking. The operation involved around 500 members of the Carabinieri police corps.

The arrests follow a large transnational operation which put behind bars around 130 people across many European countries on accusations of drug trafficking and affiliation with the ‘ndrangheta.

A secretive network of mafia families from Calabria on Italy’s southern tip, the ‘ndrangheta has steadily risen to become one of the world’s most powerful organized crime groups, including Europe’s number one cocaine trafficker.

Gratteri is currently leading the largest-ever trial against alleged ‘ndrangheta members, involving more than 400 people. Since he became a prosecutor in his home region three decades ago, the magistrate has lived under police protection. Over the years, the police have thwarted several mafia plots to kill him.

In a separate and unrelated operation, Italian national police arrested 27 people accused of drug trafficking on Sardinia, Italy’s second-largest island after Sicily.

During a two-year investigation leading to these arrests, authorities seized 36 kilograms (79 pounds) of extremely pure cocaine and documented the smuggling of a total of more than 200 kg (441 lb.) of cocaine onto Sardinia.​​​​​​​

The police estimated the revenue from the illegal drug trade totaled more than 25 million.