Police on Wednesday
arrested fugitive Vincenzo Crisafi on suspicion of international
drug trafficking.
Investigators say the 34-year-old acted as an emissary to
Holland and Germany for two mob clans from his native town of
San Luca, which is considered to be a stronghold of the powerful
Calabria-based 'Ndrangheta mafia.
Crisafi was sought as part of the so-called Puerto Liberado
investigation into drug trafficking from South America, in which
law enforcement has seized over four tonnes of pure cocaine
worth some 800 million euros.
The suspect will have to answer charges of trafficking
massive amounts of cocaine through the ports of Genoa, Gioia
Tauro, Naples and Salerno in Italy and Rotterdam in The
Netherlands, thanks to compliant port personnel.
Puerto Liberado began in March 2011, when police seized a
stash of cocaine hidden inside a container at Gioia Tauro port.
In October of that year, police arrested a Gioia Tauro manager
while he was attempting to flee aboard a van stuffed with 560
kilos of cocaine.
Because of its virtual stranglehold on the European cocaine
trade, the 'Ndrangheta is considered to be more powerful than
the Naples-based Camorra and the Sicilian Cosa Nostra mafias.
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