Dozens of mafia suspects held in international sting

Yahoo – AFP, Danny KEMP, December 5, 2018

Italian media said key organised crime family members were targeted in the
raids, such as this one in Cologne (AFP Photo/Christoph Reichwein)

The Hague (AFP) - Police arrested dozens of suspected mobsters in Europe and South America on Wednesday in a huge international swoop targeting Italy's notorious 'Ndrangheta mafia clan, officials said.

Nearly 90 people including high-ranking members of the powerful organised crime syndicate accused of drug trafficking and money laundering were arrested in coordinated raids in six countries, EU justice agency Eurojust said.

The "unprecedented" crackdown on the group based in Calabria, southern Italy, came just a day after Italian police arrested the new boss of the separate Sicilian mafia.

Hundreds of police took part in Wednesday's operation, seizing four tonnes of cocaine, 120 kilos of ecstasy and two million euros (dollars) in cash across Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Suriname.

"Today, we send a clear message to organised crime groups across Europe," Filippo Spiezia, vice president of the EU's judicial agency Eurojust, told reporters in The Hague.

"They are not the only ones able to operate across borders; so are Europe's judiciary and law enforcement communities."

He said the "unprecedented and extraordinary result", the fruit of a two-year operation, targeted "dangerous members of the 'Ndrangheta family deeply involved in drug trafficking and money laundering".

Italian restaurants

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.

Before Wednesday's Europe-wide raid, Italian police arrested the new boss 

of the Sicilian Mafia, Settimino Mineo (AFP Photo/Alessandro FUCARINI)

Despite intense police attention and frequent arrests, the organisation has continued to extend its reach.

It has surpassed Sicily's Cosa Nostra and the Naples-based Camorra in influence thanks to control of the cocaine trade and is the sole mafia organisation to operate on all continents, according to anti-mafia prosecutors.

Officials hailed Wednesday's operation -- dubbed "Operation Pollina" -- as a serious blow to the group.

In total 41 people were arrested in Italy, 21 in Germany, 14 in Belgium, five in the Netherlands and two in Luxembourg, with operations still underway, Eurojust said.

Italian police said the sweep targeted the 'Ndrangheta and its "projections across South America".

Italian anti-mafia prosecutor Federico Cafiero De Raho said the operations would affect the 'Ndrangheta's drug trafficking operations around the world, including Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil.

But he warned that it was "just a first step", saying the arrests were "nothing for the 'Ndrangheta, there are thousands of people who should be arrested and billions that should be seized".

In Germany, Wednesday's operation focused on restaurants, offices and apartments, mainly in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria region.

Dutch prosecutors said the investigation began after they noticed money laundering at two Italian restaurants in the southern Netherlands that showed criminal links with Germany and Calabria, home of the 'Ndrangheta.

Italian media said key organised crime family members were targeted in the

raids, such as this one in Cologne (AFP Photo/Christoph Reichwein)

Using an often family-based network spread out around Europe, drugs would come into the Dutch port of Rotterdam and the Belgian port of Antwerp before being moved around the continent.

Prosecutor Fred Westerbeke said they had also probed ice cream parlours, adding that together with restaurants "the suspicion is that the mafia organisation is laundering money through these establishments and they are used as a cover for their criminal organisations".

He also confirmed that there had been raids in Suriname, a small South American country that was once a Dutch colony.

Dutch NOS television said the 'Ndrangheta were mainly active in the Netherlands in drug smuggling through the country's huge flower export market.

'Decisive hit'

The Belgian operations were concentrated on the Limburg area, home to many people of Italian descent who moved there after World War II to work in coal mines, Belgian prosecutors said.

The European police agency Europol said it was a "decisive hit against one of the most powerful Italian criminal networks in the world".

European Parliament President Antonio Tajani, who is Italian, sent "congratulations" to the police forces involved, adding: "Europe fights 'Ndrangheta criminal groups".

On Tuesday, Italian police arrested new Cosa Nostra boss Settimino Mineo and dozens of other suspects in Sicily in a major swoop.

Jeweller Mineo, 80, was detained with at least 45 others just before he was due to be appointed official heir to notorious mafia boss Toto Riina, who died in prison last year.

One Neapolitan to go: Pizza delivery cops nab mafia boss

Yahoo – AFP, April 17, 2016

Italian detectives arrest the chief of Naples' notorious Camorra mafia, police
said on April 17, 2016 (AFP Photo/Filippo Monteforte)

Rome (AFP) - A mafia chief in southern Italy has been arrested by detectives disguised as pizza boys who delivered food to his home as he was watching a football match, police said Sunday.

Roberto Manganiello, 35, a boss in Naples' notorious Camorra mafia, had been on the run since 2013.

He was listed as "one of Italy's 100 most dangerous criminals" for an alleged double homicide in 2004 that sparked a bloody gang war in Naples.

Manganiello was arrested on Saturday evening as he watched Napoli play Inter Milan, when the fake delivery boys knocked on his door at an apartment in Orta di Atella where he ran a drugs and extortion business, police said.

A 30-year-old Neapolitan woman was arrested with him. Manganiello offered no resistance to the police, they said.

Interior Minister Angelino Alfano hailed the arrest, describing it as a "success due to top-level investigative work."

Adding to Manganiello's humiliation, Milan defeated his home team 2-0, all but crushing Naples' hopes of a first Serie A title in 26 years.

Italian football star Vincenzo Iaquinta to be tried for mafia links

An Italian judge has ordered more than 140 people to stand trial over alleged ties to 'Ndrangheta mafia. The officials suspect ex-Juventus striker and national team member Vincenzo Iaquinta of intending to aid the clan.

Deutsche Welle, 22 December 2015

Iaquinta was indicted for illegal possession of firearms, aggravated by intention to help the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta organization, his lawyer Carlo Taormina said on Monday.

The footballer's father, businessman Giuseppe Iaquinta, faces a more serious charge of mafia association, according to Taormina.

The 36-year old Iaquinta played for several Italian clubs, including the famous Juventus, and was part of Italy's national team which won the World Cup in 2006.

Hoy cumple 36 años el futbolista italiano Vincenzo Iaquinta pic.twitter.com/qL2zw37eUN

— Roy N'Coma (@RodrigoCornell) November 22, 2015

The Italian court ordered the Calabrian-born athlete and more than 140 other people to stand trial for their aiding or joining 'Ndrangheta, Italy's most powerful organized crime network.

A number of the suspects allegedly aided 'Ndrangheta to in their bid to infiltrate the country's north, where the influence of the mafia is traditionally weaker.

The trial is set to start in March 2016.

The Calabrian clan is rumored to control most of Europe's cocaine trade. Their name - 'Ndrangheta - comes from the Greek word for courage or loyalty, and prospective members are required to take an elaborate oath in order to join the organization.

Italy seizes mafia assets worth 2 bn euros in gambling sting

Yahoo – AFP, Ella Ide, 22 July 2015

Italian police arrest an alleged mafia member in Rome, on February 10, 2015

(AFP Photo/Filippo Monteforte)

Rome (AFP) - Italian police said Wednesday they had seized assets worth two billion euros ($2.2 billion) belonging to a powerful organised crime syndicate, in the latest sting against the mafia.

The assets snatched from the 'Ndrangheta mafia, which controls much of Europe's cocaine trade, included more than 1,500 betting shops, 82 online gambling sites and almost 60 companies, as well as numerous properties, the police said.

Prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 28 people suspected of running the gambling empire and placed 23 others either under house arrest or ordered them to check in with the police.

The crew is believed to have been headed by mobster Mario Gennaro, who made his way up through the mob in the southern region of Calabria from local to regional chief because of the gambling ring's success.

The 'Ndrangheta is considered the most powerful crime syndicate in Italy, having surpassed Sicily's Cosa Nostra and the Naples-based Camorra thanks to the wealth it has amassed as the principal importer and wholesaler of cocaine produced in Latin America and smuggled into Europe via north Africa and southern Italy.

Profits from the trade, which is worth billions, were laundered through the gambling empire.

The gang "recycled an enormous amount of 'dirty' money through the use of gaming accounts assigned to willing or unwitting people", police said in a statement.

"They bypassed the laws governing this sector, accumulating significant profits that were then reinvested in the acquisition of new companies and licences to further expand their activities."

Italian police escort an alleged member of the N'Drangheta mafia after his 2010

arrest in Corigliano Calabro (AFP Photo/Mario Tosti)

Eleven of the companies seized were based abroad, in Austria, Malta, Romania and Spain.

'Serious blow'

Interior Minister Angelino Alfano described the sting in Reggio Calabria as "a serious blow to the 'Ndrangheta".

The name 'Ndrangheta comes from the Greek for courage or loyalty and the organisation's tight clan-based structure has made it hard to penetrate.

In a triumph for anti-mafia hunters, dozens of alleged mobsters linked to the group were detained at the end of last year in and around Milan, Italy's business capital, on charges of criminal association and extortion.

Police released secretly-filmed footage of men undergoing initiation into "Santa" (holy) membership, whereby promoted mobsters swore allegiance to their new "wise brothers" and took an "oath of poison" under which they vow to kill themselves should they ever betray fellow clan members.

A separate sting in January led to the seizure of a notebook written in a hieroglyphic-style code which detailed the initiation rites and the 'Ndrangheta's hierarchical structure from "piciotto" (foot soldier) up to Godfather.

It also detailed the clan's own mystical account of how its structure and "code of honour" came into being as a result of three knights landing on an island off Sicily after being banished from Spain for avenging the honour of their raped sister.

The gambling operation came just two weeks after authorities seized goods worth 1.6 billion euros from a Sicilian mafia family, which included 33 companies, hundreds of houses, villas and buildings, 80 bank accounts, 40 insurance policies and over 40 vehicles.

Related Article:

Italian police seize 1.6bn from Mafia family

Italy captures mafia initiation rites on film, 40 arrests

Yahoo – AFP, Ella Ide, 18 Nov 2014

Rome's National Anti-Mafia headquarters on February 11, 2014 (AFP Photo/

Filippo Monteforte)

Rome (AFP) - Secret mafia initiation rites have been caught on camera for the first time by Italian police, who on Tuesday arrested 40 suspected gangsters in raids across the north of the country.

The arrests, on charges of criminal association, illegal arms sales and extortion, followed a two-year investigation using wire-taps and hidden cameras in locations known to be frequented by mobsters, police said.

"For the first time the swearing-in ceremonies have been recorded live," Milan prosecutor Ilda Boccassini told journalists at a press conference following raids which saw 37 people landed behind bars and another three placed under house arrest.

Italian prosecutor Ilda Boccassini 

gestures during a press conference

 in Milan on December 1, 2011 (AFP

Photo/Giuseppe Aresu)

"For the first time we heard it from the voice of the mafia," instead of relying on details from police informants, she said.

Those arrested are believed to belong to three clans based near Milan but affiliated with the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta, an organised crime group made up of networks of hundreds of family gangs even more feared and secretive than the Sicilian Mafia.

Police said the arrests were fresh proof of the deadly southern group's expansion into the rich industrial north of the country. Those in handcuffs include a 17-year old boy and boss Giuseppe Larosa, known by the nickname "Peppe the Cow," according to Italian media reports.

The video and audio recordings revealed the swearing in of 'Ndrangheta mobsters to an elite membership known as "Santa".

New members swore allegiance "in the silence of the night and under the light of the stars and splendour of the moon" to "safeguard my wise brothers".

Bullet with your name on it

An unnamed boss leading the rite in police videos published on Italian newspaper websites can be heard telling the new Santa that they are now expected to be their own executioners should they stray from the 'Ndrangheta's code.

"From now on it will not be other men who judge you, you will judge yourselves," the man says.

In what he describes as the "oath of poison", he says there are two alternatives open to the disloyal: "Either you poison yourselves or you take this (gun) which shoots. There must always be a bullet reserved; one for you."

Boccassini said the Santa's affiliation "is in their DNA and under their skin and they can leave the 'Ndrangheta either by collaborating with the state or through death".

The name 'Ndrangheta comes from the Greek for courage or loyalty. Its tight clan structure has made it famously difficult to penetrate.

She referred to a conversation wiretapped in July last year, where boss Michelangelo Chindamo was heard saying that "the music may change but the rest remains... we can never change".

He warned mobsters with him that "having a mobile phone in your pocket... is like having a policeman in your pocket," and cited anti-mafia magistrate Boccassini and police wiretaps as exactly the sort of threat the clans faced.

Notebooks were discovered during the police raid which detailed the rites, investigators said.

Boccassini said the proof gathered by the police was so solid that those arrested would be dealt with under a fast-track trial procedure which would do away with preliminary hearings.