Italian and Swiss police on Tuesday
arrested 75 people in a sweep against the Calabria-based
'Ndrangheta mafia in the two countries.
In all, 158 people were placed under investigation.
They are variously accused of mafia association, international
drug trafficking, money laundering, fraudulently claiming
property and goods, corruption, extortion and other crimes, all
aggravated by using mafia methods.
The major targets of the swoop were clans from the area between
the Calabrian cities of Vibo Valentia and Lamezia Terme.
Assets worth some 169 million euros were seized in the
operation.
Police said the joint op was the result of years of
investigations.
Among those arrested was former Calabrian regional councillor
Francescantonio Stillitani.
He has been charged with vote buying from the mafia, extortion,
private violence and damages.
Police said he paid for votes before being elected for the now
defunct conservative UDC party in 2005.
Firms owned by two businessmen arrested have benefited from
COVID aid funding, police said.
Parliamentary anti-mafia commission chief Nicola Morra said
police had inflicted a "hard blow" on 'Ndrangheta and gathered
more evidence of its "transnational" nature.
'Ndrangheta is Italy's richest and most powerful mafia.
It has outstripped Sicily's Cosa Nostra thanks to its control of
the European cocaine trade.
According to a 2013 "Threat Assessment on Italian Organised
Crime" by Europol and the Guardia di Finanza, 'Ndrangheta income
was around $55 billion in 2008.
Its tentacles have spread from its southern Italian base to
central and northern Italy, northern Europe, North and South
America and Australia, among other areas.
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