15 arrests in 'Ndrangheta-linked drug trafficking gang

(ANSA) - PAVIA, APR 27 - Italian police on Tuesday arrested some 15 people including eight Peruvians and seven Italians in a probe into a suspected drug trafficking gang linked to the Calabria-based 'Ndrangheta mafia.
    Police said the gang was dedicated to importing cocaine from South America, the main source of 'Ndrangheta's vast income.
    Suspected gang members were arrested in Milan, Pavia, Monza Brianza and Rome.
    Police said the gang brought the cocaine into Italy from Peru via Spain.
    It was then passed on to 'Ndrangheta clans based in Lombardy and Calabria, police said.
    Police seized assets worth over 50 million euros in the probe.
    They were seized from a timber businessman in San Giovanni in Fiore near Cosenza in Calabria, Luigi Spadafora, 70, and his sons Pasquale (45), Rosario (34) and Antonio (38).
    Police said the Spadaforas had a monopoly over the local timber trade, protected by 'Ndrangheta.
    'Ndrangheta is Italy's richest and most powerful mafia, thanks to its control of the European cocaine trade.
    The other two main mafias are Cosa Nostra in Sicily and the Camorra in Campania, the region around Naples. (ANSA).