Over 160 people were arrested on Wednesday as part of a massive operation targeting the Calabria-based 'Ndrangheta mafia, investigators announced. The powerful syndicate has spread outside its southern homeland and the arrests were in the northern regions of Emilia Romagna, Lombardia, Piemonte and Veneto as well as Sicily and Calabria.
About 1,000 Carabinieri police officers were engaged in the operation. The people arrested are accused of crimes including mafia association, extortion and illegal possession of arms.
National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor Prosecutor Franco Roberti said that the Bologna-based operation was "historic and unprecedented".
It was "imposing and decisive in the fight against the mafia in the north," he said. "I can't recall an intervention of this type to combat a strong and monolithic criminal organisation, deeply infiltrated (in the northern economy)", Roberti said.
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