47 Nigerian Mafia arrests

(ANSA) - ROME, 21 LUG - Italian police on Tuesday arrested 47 people linked to the Nigerian Mafia in Italy.
    Those arrested have been charged with mafia association, human trafficking, drug trafficking and distribution, and exploiting prostitution.
    The arrests were made in Sicily and in central Italy including Campania and Lazio.
    Police said that in Campania, the Nigerian Mafia was now "on the same level" as the historic Camorra mafia in the region around Naples.
    In a by-now standard practice, women and girls were trafficked from Nigeria into sex work on Italian roads by threatening them with voodoo rites.
    Nigerian prostitutes are a common sight on roads leading out of Italian cities, or on streets in the suburbs of Italian towns.
    The Nigerian Mafia has been growing in Italy for several decades. (ANSA).