(ANSA) - Rome, January 20 - A cooperative implicated in a big Rome mafia probe earlier this year was searched Tuesday in a fresh probe into a criminal organisation linked to the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta mafia, Italy's richest and most powerful mafia. The Edera cooperative gave jobs to prison inmates granted alternatives to custodial sentences, including some of those placed under investigation Tuesday, police said. Police on Tuesday arrested approximately 30 people on suspicion of involvement in a Rome-based criminal organisation linked to the southern Calabria region's powerful 'Ndrangheta mafia. The suspects were arrested on charges relating to the murder of Vincenzo Femia, a mobster operating in Rome on behalf of the Nirta-Scalzone clan, in January 2013, as well as injury and extortion among other alleged crimes. Investigators linked them to the Pizzata clan. Searches across several regions also led to the discovery of a notebook containing details of the ceremony of affiliation to the crime syndicate.
In addition police confiscated roughly 600 kg of cocaine and hashish and firearms during the operation.
The 'Ndrangheta has replaced Sicily's Cosa Nostra as Italy's most powerful mafia organization thanks to its domination of the European cocaine trade.