90 held in antiMafia raids across Europe
ITALY - Ninety people have been arrested in a series of operations targeting suspected ‘Ndrangheta members across Europe and South America, Italian police said yesterday. Raids are taking place across Europe in Italy, Germany, Netherlands and Belgium, an Italian police statement said. Charges include international drugs trafficking, Mafia associations, money laundering and real estate fraud.
The operation was taking place one day after the alleged head, or ‘godfather’, of the Sicilian Mafia, Cosa Nostra, was arrested with 46 other people in the Palermo region of Italy on Mafia charges, according to Italian police and antiMafia prosecutors in Palermo.
Ndrangheta has its roots in Calabria, southern Italy, but over the decades has developed into a powerful international criminal organization. Yesterday’s operation is being coordinated by the EU agency Eurojust, which supports judicial coordination between EU member states.
Antonio Tajani, President of the European Parliament, tweeted his congratulations to all the law enforcement agencies involved in the operation. “Europe fights ‘Ndrangheta criminal groups. A Eurojust coordinated operation led to arresting over 90 people involved in drug trafficking & money laundering,” he said. Police have been searching properties in the German states of Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia since the early hours yesterday, a spokesperson at the German federal criminal police office told CNN.
Several arrests have been made so far and operations are ongoing, the spokesman said. About 440 police officials in Germany are involved, according to investigators. Earlier this year, police arrested about 170 people in Italy and Germany in an antiMafia swoop.
Following the arrest of Settimo Mineo, Italian police said he had been elected godfather at the first Cosa Nostra summit held since 1993, after former boss, Toto Riina, died in prison last year. Mineo, aged 80, has been working as a jewelry maker.
There is no indication that the two operations are related. Mineo had previously been handed a fiveyear jail sentence in the 1980s antimafia Maxi trial, in which antiMafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone -- who was killed by the Mafia in a car bomb in 1992 -- was the chief prosecutor.
(CNN)