Cross-border EU police arrest 84 mafia suspects
DOZENS of suspected members of the ’Ndrangheta mafia were arrested yesterday in co-ordinated raids as part of what is being hailed as the biggest-ever EU operation against organised crime.
Police in Italy, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg raided the homes of suspected mafia bosses and searched restaurants and businesses in the early hours. They arrested 84 suspects in total. Italian authorities said further raids were conducted in South America.
The ’Ndrangheta, a mafia organisation that operates out of Calabria, southern Italy, is one of the largest crime syndicates in the world and makes billions through smuggling cocaine.
Operation Pollino was co-ordinated by Eurojust, the EU’S cross-border justice authority. Filippo Spiezia, its vice president, said: “Today we send a clear message to organised crime groups. They are not the only ones able to operate across borders; so are we.”
Almost half the suspects were detained in Italy. In Germany, the raids constituted the country’s greatest strike against the mafia, as several hundred officers searched more than 60 properties and arrested 14 suspects.
The raids are the culmination of two years of co-operation that has netted four tons of cocaine, large quantities of ecstasy and £1.8million in cash.
Money made by the ’Ndrangheta from drugs is then put into property and businesses such as restaurants, cafés and ice cream parlours where crime families launder illicit revenues.
According to Eurojust, the ’Ndrangheta exploited the lack of cross-border co-ordination between judicial authorities, but Mr Spiezia said the raids were a sign that this perceived weakness in European justice had been tackled.
In Germany, the rise of the ’Ndrangheta became apparent when a power struggle between two gangs spilt on to the streets of Duisburg in 2007. Six ’Ndrangheta family members were shot dead outside an Italian restaurant by a rival family from the same tiny mountain village in Calabria. One expert said: “The mafia in Germany is invisible but represented almost everywhere.”