Cops nab major 'Ndrangheta drugs suspect

(ANSA) - Reggio Calabria, August 20 - 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.