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.
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