56 arrests in crackdown on Mafia clans

(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 16 - Italian police on Thursday made 56 arrests in a crackdown on the prominent Santapaola-Ercolano clan in eastern Sicily.
    Some of the men arrested belonged to another clan, the Nardos from Lentini.
    The warrants were served by over 400 police in Catania, Ramacca, Vizzini, Caltagirone and San Michele di Ganzaria, and in three towns near Siracusa: Lentini, Carlentini and Francofonte.
    Police said the two clans practised widespread drug trafficking and distribution as well as running protection rackets in and around Catania and Siracusa.
    They also cornered the market in public sector contracts in the city of Caltagirone, police said.
    The Santapaola-Ercolano clan is run from jail by elderly superboss Benedetto 'Nitto' Santapaola. (ANSA).