More than 100 people have been arrested across Germany, Spain and Italy after a three-year investigation into a powerful Italian mafia group.
Italian and Belgian investigators believe the suspected members of the ‘Ndrangheta organised crime group, smuggled close to 25 tonnes of cocaine between October 2019 and January 2022.
The group is also accused of funnelling more than €22m (£19m) from Calabria in Italy to Belgium, the Netherlands and South America.
The ‘Ndrangheta is based in the southern region of Calabria, and has surpassed Cosa Nostra to become the most powerful mafia group in Italy – and one of the largest crime networks in the world.
Italy’s Carabinieri police carried out 108 arrests in various cities across the country in an investigation based in the southern city of Reggio Calabria, they said in a statement.
A further 15 people were detained on the orders of police in the northwestern Italian port city of Genoa.
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Meanwhile, German police arrested dozens of suspects in early morning raids.
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State police in Bavaria said the arrests were the result of more than three years of an investigation dubbed “Operation Eureka”.
The coordinated probe was carried out by investigators in Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain, German public prosecutors and state police have said.
