Italian police on Thursday arrested
12 people after stopping 450 kilogrammes of cocaine entering
Italy from South America.
Police from Vicenza arrested people in the provinces of Vicenza,
Reggio Calabria and Trento.
In the operation, police seized assets worth some 246,000 euros.
Separately, 11 suspected members of Italy's Nigerian mafia were
arrested in Palermo, mainly on drugs charges.
The Calabria-based 'Ndrangheta mafia, Italy's richest and most
powerful organised crime outfit, controls the European cocaine
trade.
Its vast income has enabled it to outstrip its Sicilian cousins
in Cosa Nostra and expand to the rest of Italy and the world.
Italy's third main mafia, the Camorra from Naples, also deals
heavily in drugs.
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