After a three-year probe into an Italian mafia organization, more than 100 people were arrested in Germany, Spain and Italy.
Investigators in Italy and Belgium believe that the suspected members of ‘Ndrangheta, an organised crime group smuggled 25 tonnes of coca between October 2019 and January 2022.
The group has also been accused of funneling more than EUR22m (19m PS) from Calabria, Italy to Belgium and the Netherlands as well as South America.
The ‘Ndrangheta has its headquarters in Calabria in southern Italy. It is now the most powerful mafia organization in Italy, surpassing Cosa Nostra.
In a press release, the Carabinieri police in Italy said that they had made 108 arrests across the country as part of an investigation in Reggio Calabria in the south.
In the port city of Genoa, located in northwestern Italy, police detained 15 more people.
In raids conducted in the early morning hours, German police arrested scores of suspects.
Four people were arrested in Bavaria; 15 in North Rhine-Westphalia and 10 in Rhineland Palatinate, a state in southwest Germany.
The arrests in Bavaria were the culmination of a three-year investigation, dubbed Operation Eureka.
The police also confiscated potential evidence in dozens of places, including offices and homes.
In Italy, two suspects under investigation by the western state Saarland were arrested.
The police did not identify the two men, only stating that one was 47 and the other 25,
Spanish police confirmed that a man was also detained in Malaga, a city located in southern Spain, as part of coordinating investigation. They did not provide any further details.
German public prosecutors, state police and German prosecutors have confirmed that investigators from Germany, Belgium France Italy Portugal and Spain conducted a coordinated investigation.
The German prosecutor and the Carabinieri Police announced that they will hold separate press conferences on Wednesday.
reply
retweet
favourite
