'Ndrangheta grips local councils - DIA

(ANSA) Rome, February 2 - 'Ndrangheta, the Calabrian version of the Mafia, is infiltrating more local government organs in Italy and not just in its Calabrian power base, the national anti-mafia police department DIA said Monday.
    Calabrian local councils face a 'cyclical emergency' of infiltration by the crime gang that led to as many as 14 councils in the region being dissolved in 2014, the DIA said in its regular six-monthly report.
    But the report cautioned that the high number of councils being detected could be because police are on their guard in Calabria whereas in other regions they may be less so.
    The ability of the Calabrian mafia to infiltrate councils in other regions where Calabrians have emigrated for decades should not be underestimated, the report says, citing the example of the council at Sedriano in Milan province dissolved in October 2013 because of mafia infestation.
    The DIA also warned that the Sicilian Cosa Nostra now is being led by people "with a criminal curriculum without background" instead of the "leadership that meant the historic clan leaders".
    This is due to "the growing enrolment of foreign manpower and even of (Roma) gypsies", according to the DIA, which also cautioned that the Sicilian crime organisation has undergone "re-generative metamorphoses" toward "more flexible spheres of influence" than in the past.