31 arrests in 'Ndrangheta sweep in Calabria

(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 16 - Italian police on Thursday arrested 31 people in a major sweep against the Calabria-based 'Ndrangheta mafia in and around Crotone and as far north as Trieste, judicial sources said.
    Around 150 Carabinieri served the warrants on people variously charged with mafia association, extortion, and weapons and explosives offences, all aggravated by using mafia methods.
    The operation was aimed at dismantling an 'Ndrangheta branch known as the Locale di Cirò, police said.
    Some 26 people were taken into preventive custody in prison and five more were placed under house arrest.
    They weer arrested in a Cirò Marina, Cirò, Umbriatico, Nova Siri near Matera, and the northeastern port city of Trieste.
    Two warrants were served on 'Ndranghetisti already serving time in Catanzaro and Ancona.
    Police said that as well as running various rackets, the Cirò Locale also meted out justice of a kind, returning stolen goods to people who complained of thefts and robberies.
    'Ndrangheta is Italy's richest and most powerful mafia thanks to its hold on the European cocaine trade and its global reach.
    (ANSA).