Italy's 'Ndrangheta mafia hit by major international bust
Police arrested dozens of suspected mobsters in Europe and South America on Wednesday in a huge international swoop targeting Italy's notorious 'Ndrangheta mafia clan, officials said.
Around 90 people accused of involvement in drug trafficking, money laundering and violent crime were arrested in raids in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname.
Hundreds of police took part in the operation, seizing four tonnes of cocaine, 120 kilos of ecstasy and €2 million in cash from locations including Italian restaurants and ice cream parlours.
An Italian restaurant in Pulheim, west Germany, where police arrested a man suspected of mafia ties. Photo: Oliver Berg/DPA/AFP
The crackdown on the powerful organized crime syndicate based in Calabria, southern Italy, came just a day after Italian police arrested the new boss of the separate Sicilian mafia.
"Today, we send a clear message to organised crime groups across Europe," Filippo Spiezia, vice president of the EU's judicial agency Eurojust, told reporters in The Hague. "They are not the only ones able to operate across borders; so are Europe's judiciary and law enforcement communities."
He said the "unprecedented and extraordinary result", the fruit of a two-year operation, targeted "dangerous members of the 'Ndrangheta family deeply involved in drug trafficking and money laundering".
READ ALSO: Italy's 'Ndrangheta mafia 'on all continents' and still growing
The 'Ndrangheta -- which derives its meaning from the Greek word for "heroism" -- is made up of numerous village and family-based clans in Calabria, the rural, mountainous and under-developed "toe" of Italy's boot.
Despite intense police attention and frequent arrests, the organization has continued to extend its reach. It has surpassed Sicily's Cosa Nostra and the Naples-based Camorra in influence thanks to control of the cocaine trade and is the sole mafia organization to operate on all continents, according to anti-mafia prosecutors.
Officials hailed Wednesday's operation -- dubbed "Operation Pollina" -- as a serious blow to the group. The European police agency Europol said it was a "decisive hit against one of the most powerful Italian criminal networks in the world".
READ ALSO:
-
Journalists an ‘easy target' for mafia, says watchdog
-
How the mafia uses violence to influence Italian politics
-
Genoa bridge collapse: The mafia's role
Photo: Anna Monaco/AFP
In Germany, Wednesday's operation focused on restaurants, offices and apartments, mainly in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria region. German prosecutors said 47 suspects had been targeted and 65 premises were being searched.
Dutch prosecutors said the investigation began after they noticed money laundering at two Italian restaurants in the southern Netherlands that showed criminal links with Germany and Calabria, home of the 'Ndrangheta. Using an often family-based network spread out around Europe, drugs would come into the Dutch port of Rotterdam and the Belgian port of Antwerp before being moved around the continent.
Prosecutor Fred Westerbeke said they had also probed ice cream parlours, adding that together with restaurants "the suspicion is that the mafia organization is laundering money through these establishments and they are
used as a cover for their criminal organizations."
He also confirmed that there had been raids in Suriname, a small South American country that was once a Dutch colony.
READ ALSO: Citrus fruits, scurvy and Cosa Nostra: Analyzing the origins of the Sicilian mafia
The Belgian operations were concentrated on the Limburg area, home to many people of Italian descent who moved there after World War II to work in coal mines, Belgian prosecutors said.
Italian anti-mafia prosecutor Federico Cafiero De Raho said the operations would affect the 'Ndrangheta's drug trafficking operations around the world, including Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil.
But he warned that it was "just a first step", saying the arrests were "nothing for the 'Ndrangheta, there are thousands of people who should be arrested and billions that should be seized".
Wednesday's operation came a day after Italian police arrested new Cosa Nostra boss Settimino Mineo and dozens of other suspects in Sicily in a major swoop.
Jeweller Mineo, 80, was detained along with at least 45 others just before he was due to be appointed official heir to notorious mafia boss Toto Riina, who died in prison last year.
READ ALSO: Is Totò Riina's death the end of the Sicilian mafia?
Photo: Alessandro Fucarini/AFP
By AFP's Danny Kemp
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Around 90 people accused of involvement in drug trafficking, money laundering and violent crime were arrested in raids in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname.
Hundreds of police took part in the operation, seizing four tonnes of cocaine, 120 kilos of ecstasy and €2 million in cash from locations including Italian restaurants and ice cream parlours.
An Italian restaurant in Pulheim, west Germany, where police arrested a man suspected of mafia ties. Photo: Oliver Berg/DPA/AFP
The crackdown on the powerful organized crime syndicate based in Calabria, southern Italy, came just a day after Italian police arrested the new boss of the separate Sicilian mafia.
"Today, we send a clear message to organised crime groups across Europe," Filippo Spiezia, vice president of the EU's judicial agency Eurojust, told reporters in The Hague. "They are not the only ones able to operate across borders; so are Europe's judiciary and law enforcement communities."
He said the "unprecedented and extraordinary result", the fruit of a two-year operation, targeted "dangerous members of the 'Ndrangheta family deeply involved in drug trafficking and money laundering".
READ ALSO: Italy's 'Ndrangheta mafia 'on all continents' and still growing
The 'Ndrangheta -- which derives its meaning from the Greek word for "heroism" -- is made up of numerous village and family-based clans in Calabria, the rural, mountainous and under-developed "toe" of Italy's boot.
Despite intense police attention and frequent arrests, the organization has continued to extend its reach. It has surpassed Sicily's Cosa Nostra and the Naples-based Camorra in influence thanks to control of the cocaine trade and is the sole mafia organization to operate on all continents, according to anti-mafia prosecutors.
Officials hailed Wednesday's operation -- dubbed "Operation Pollina" -- as a serious blow to the group. The European police agency Europol said it was a "decisive hit against one of the most powerful Italian criminal networks in the world".
READ ALSO:
- Journalists an ‘easy target' for mafia, says watchdog
- How the mafia uses violence to influence Italian politics
- Genoa bridge collapse: The mafia's role
Photo: Anna Monaco/AFP
In Germany, Wednesday's operation focused on restaurants, offices and apartments, mainly in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria region. German prosecutors said 47 suspects had been targeted and 65 premises were being searched.
Dutch prosecutors said the investigation began after they noticed money laundering at two Italian restaurants in the southern Netherlands that showed criminal links with Germany and Calabria, home of the 'Ndrangheta. Using an often family-based network spread out around Europe, drugs would come into the Dutch port of Rotterdam and the Belgian port of Antwerp before being moved around the continent.
Prosecutor Fred Westerbeke said they had also probed ice cream parlours, adding that together with restaurants "the suspicion is that the mafia organization is laundering money through these establishments and they are
used as a cover for their criminal organizations."
He also confirmed that there had been raids in Suriname, a small South American country that was once a Dutch colony.
READ ALSO: Citrus fruits, scurvy and Cosa Nostra: Analyzing the origins of the Sicilian mafia
The Belgian operations were concentrated on the Limburg area, home to many people of Italian descent who moved there after World War II to work in coal mines, Belgian prosecutors said.
Italian anti-mafia prosecutor Federico Cafiero De Raho said the operations would affect the 'Ndrangheta's drug trafficking operations around the world, including Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil.
But he warned that it was "just a first step", saying the arrests were "nothing for the 'Ndrangheta, there are thousands of people who should be arrested and billions that should be seized".
Wednesday's operation came a day after Italian police arrested new Cosa Nostra boss Settimino Mineo and dozens of other suspects in Sicily in a major swoop.
Jeweller Mineo, 80, was detained along with at least 45 others just before he was due to be appointed official heir to notorious mafia boss Toto Riina, who died in prison last year.
READ ALSO: Is Totò Riina's death the end of the Sicilian mafia?
Photo: Alessandro Fucarini/AFP
By AFP's Danny Kemp
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