Several arrests in Germany in a vast European anti-mafia operation

Big crackdown against the Calabrian mafia. A vast police operation targeting the ‘Ndrangheta was launched on Wednesday morning May 3 in several European countries, including Germany, where searches and arrests were carried out. Hundreds of German police intervened as part of a “large-scale European operation” who aims “leaders and members of the ‘Ndrangheta”said several regional prosecutors, including that of Munich.

In total in this country, more than a hundred searches were carried out and around thirty arrest warrants, including four European warrants, were executed, according to the authorities of the Länder of Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland -Palatinate and Saarland. The investigation concerns the crimes of “drug trafficking, money laundering, arms trafficking, fraud and various large-scale tax crimes”.

The German authorities acted within the framework of Operation Eureka, coordinated by the European offices Europol and Eurojust. Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann described the operation as “sensitive blow to the ‘Ndrangetha”, a criminal organization based in the Italian region of Calabria and considered the richest and most powerful mafia in Italy, with a growing global reach covering more than 40 countries. Operations also took place in Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain.