Reggio Calabria mayor among suspects in mafia probe

(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 11 - Reggio Calabria Mayor Giuseppe Falcomatà, a member of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), is among the people under investigation in relation to a probe into alleged ties between the 'Ndrangheta mafia and the local political world, sources said on Tuesday.
    Giuseppe Neri, the caucus head in the Calabrian regional assembly for Premier Giorgia Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, and Francesco Sera, a Reggio Calabria city councillor for the PD, are also being probed, the sources said.
    Carabinieri police on Tuesday arrested seven people and put four under house arrest in a major operation linked to the investigation.
    Three other suspects are obliged to regularly sign in with the authorities.
    The probe is into alleged deals regarding the 2020 and 2021 regional elections in Calabria and the 2020 municipal elections in Reggio Calabria, according to the sources.
    Prosecutors had requested the arrest of Neri and Sera, but a preliminary investigations judge refused to grant warrants for them, the sources said. (ANSA).