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.
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