Dozens of people were arrested Wednesday across Europe in a sprawling probe against members of the ‘Ndrangheta, a mafia organization from the southern Italian region of Calabria.
Police swooped in Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal and Belgium.
In Italy, 108 people suspected of participation in a mafia-type association were arrested by Calabria’s regional police on a range of charges, including arms and international drug trafficking, Italian newswire ANSA reported.
In Germany, police forces carried out more than 30 arrests in five different regions, raiding dozens of houses, apartments and offices, the police of North Rhine-Westphalia said in a statement.
Some 20 houses were raided in Belgium, the federal public prosecutor’s office said in a statement, adding that the operation targeted “over one hundred alleged members of the Calabrese mafia.”
The operation followed a joint investigation by Europol and the EU’s judicial cooperation agency, Eurojust, involving hundreds of officers from the six countries’ security forces.
The ‘Ndrangheta is one of Italy’s most powerful mafia groups, and is listed by Interpol as one of the largest criminal organizations in the world.
Gabriel Rinaldi and Elena Giordano contributed reporting.
