17 arrests in Milan, Reggio Calabria 'Ndrangheta op

(ANSA) - MILAN, JUL 6 - Italian police on Monday arrested 17 people in a big sweep against the Calabria-based 'Ndrangheta mafia in Milan and Reggio Calabria.
    The arrests were made on suspicion of drug trafficking offences, police said.
    The operation, codenamed 'Square', stemmed from a probe that began in 2018, police said.
    Police said they had dismantled a criminal group "dedicated to trafficking huge quantities of cocaine and marijuana in the south-west of Milan province".
    A major assets seizure was made from one of the historic Lombardy clan leaders of 'Ndrangheta in the northern Italian region, Bartolomeo Iaconis, 61.
    Iaconis already served a sentence for drug trafficking in the 1990s and was currently on trial for murder in Como.
    Police seized real estate, land and woods as well as horses the boss kept on a ranch.
    'Ndrangheta, which controls the European cocaine trade, has long infiltrated the economy of northern Italy as well as expanding across the globe to set up strong branches in the US, Canada, Australia and other countries including northern Europe.
    'Ndrangheta has overtaken Sicily's Cosa Nostra as Italy's richest and most dangerous mafia. (ANSA).