(ANSA) - Rome, May 7 - Italian police and Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) agents have carried out an anti-mafia sweep
against alleged members of the Calabria-based 'Ndrangheta crime
syndicate operating on both sides of the Atlantic, sources said
Thursday.
The suspects are thought to be part of an international
drug trafficking ring between Italy, the United States and South
America.
Investigators say the ring had its operating base in a
restaurant run by a man from Calabria in the Queens district of
New York and organised for cocaine to be smuggled out of central
America in containers officially containing tropical fruit and
tubers.
Roughly 15 people have been detained in the joint
police-FBI operation including the restaurateur and his wife and
son.
Police, FBI in joint 'Ndrangheta sweep
Drugs ring had operating base in New York restaurant