More than 140 members of the Calabrian mafia arrested in Italy in a vast dragnet

An important haul. The Italian authorities announced that they had carried out an operation on Tuesday May 14 targeting the ‘Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia. More than 140 people were targeted, particularly in the historic districts of the city of Cosenza, active in drug trafficking.

The suspects, 109 of whom were incarcerated, 20 placed under house arrest and 13 others subject to other restrictive measures, are suspected of various associational reasons. “ndranghetist, drug trafficking, aggravated by the head of a mafia association” and other crimes, details a police press release. The operation was carried out at dawn by the carabinieri, police and agents specializing in economic crime, under the direction of the Catanzaro anti-mafia prosecutor’s office. An official from the Guardia di finanza, the Italian customs and financial police, was also arrested during the operation.

Vincenzo Capomolla, prosecutor of Catanzaro, assured the press that mafia groups “asphyxiated” the traders and entrepreneurs of Cosenza by extorting money from them, even though their main activity was drug trafficking for which they even used minors.