Authorities in Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and South America yesterday launched coordinated raids in a crackdown on the Italian mafia.
The raids were the culmination of an investigation codenamed “Pollino” that was launched in 2016 against the ’Ndrangheta criminal group on allegations of cocaine trafficking, money laundering, bribery and violence, said Eurojust, the European agency that fights cross-border organized crime.
In Germany, federal police said there had been multiple arrests in early morning raids on premises linked to the crime group.
The focus was on restaurants, offices and apartments in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Der Spiegel reported.
It said 47 suspects had been targeted and 65 premises were being searched, adding that searches were also under way in Spain.
Italian police said that 90 people had been arrested so far in the operation targeting the ’Ndrangheta group and its “projections across South America.”
The vast operation was carried out by Italy’s anti-mafia and anti-terrorism force in collaboration with German, Belgian and Dutch authorities, it said.
Europol said it was a “decisive hit against one of the most powerful Italian criminal networks in the world.”
The ’Ndrangheta — which derives its meaning from the Greek word for “heroism” — is made up of numerous village and family-based clans in Calabria, the rural, mountainous and under-developed “toe” of Italy’s boot. Despite intense police attention and frequent arrests, the organization has continued to extend its reach.
It has surpassed Sicily’s Cosa Nostra and the Naples-based Camorra in influence thanks to its control of the cocaine trade, and is the sole mafia organization to operate on all continents, according to prosecutors.
Dutch NOS television said the ’Ndrangheta were mainly active in the Netherlands in drug smuggling through the country’s huge flower export market.
Belgian media said the arrests in that country were concentrated in the Limburg area.
Yesterday’s operations came a day after Italian police arrested new Cosa Nostra boss Settimino Mineo and dozens of other suspects in Sicily in a major swoop.
Mineo was detained along with at least 45 others just before he was due to be appointed official heir to mafia boss Salvatore “Toto” Riina, who died in prison in November last year.
Italy’s chief anti-mafia prosecutor, Federico Cafiero de Raho, said the election of Mineo was significant, because it showed that the center of power of Cosa Nostra had shifted to Palermo.
Those arrested are suspected of mafia association, extortion, weapons violations and other charges, police said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of