Police said on Friday they had arrested scores of people in Italy and elsewhere in Europe in a crackdown on a crime syndicate, days after a local politician was fatally shot at a polling station in a killing blamed on the group.
A total of 61 people were arrested in separate operations over two days, according to police in the southern Calabria region, where the 'ndrangheta crime syndicate is based.
The arrests were not linked to Sunday's killing of center-left politician Francesco Fortugno, but authorities billed them as the state's response to the crime.
Fortugno, a center-left politician, was shot and killed as he voted in a nationwide primary in the small Calabrian town of Locri. No arrests had been made in connection with his death.
The government was planning a series of anti-crime initiatives to combat the syndicate, including increased police presence in the region and additional surveillance of suspects, Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said.
Police said they arrested 42 people in Italy, Spain, France Belgium, the Netherlands, and Serbia-Montenegro.
It was not immediately clear how many were arrested in Italy. All the suspects were held for alleged drug-trafficking -- believed to be one of 'ndrangheta's main activities.
Those arrested included around 15 from Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile, and 10 come from Serbia-Montenegro, police said. The others were Italians, mostly from Calabria, on the southeastern tip of the Italian mainland.
The group was believed to have smuggled cocaine from several Latin American countries through Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium, Giardina said. He said searches turned up 50kg of cocaine and several guns.
Also on Friday, three people were arrested in the Calabria region for their alleged role in the 2004 murder of 'ndrangheta boss Antonio Dragone, police said. The operation was also aimed at cracking down on extortion.
Authorities say the 'ndrangheta is becoming more powerful in Italy than the Sicilian Mafia.
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday announced a deal with the chief of Kurdish-led forces that includes a ceasefire, after government troops advanced across Kurdish-held areas of the country’s north and east. Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said he had agreed to the deal to avoid a broader war. He made the decision after deadly clashes in the Syrian city of Raqa on Sunday between Kurdish-led forces and local fighters loyal to Damascus, and fighting this month between the Kurds and government forces. The agreement would also see the Kurdish administration and forces integrate into the state after months of stalled negotiations on
RSS