33 arrests in 'Ndrangheta Veneto probe

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 15 - Venice policed on Wednesday arrested 33 people in a probe into infiltration by the Calabria-based 'Ndrangheta mafia into the northeastern Veneto region.
    Over 100 people in all were placed under investigation.
    The probe showed that some 'Ndrangheta families had been active in the Verona area for over 20 years, police said.
    The arrests were made in Veneto as well as in Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy and Calabria.
    "The deep-rooted nature of 'Ndrangheta activity in the northeast has now been proven," said anti-mafia police.
    Among the charges were mafia association, drug trafficking, extortion, robbery, usury, receiving stolen goods, money laundering, bid rigging, aggravated theft, aiding and abetting, and weapons possession and use, with the aggravating factor of mafia crimes.
    'Ndrangheta is Italy's richest and most powerful mafia.
    It has outstripped Sicily's Cosa Nostra thanks to its control of the European cocaine trade.
    Its tentacles have spread from its southern Italian base to central and northern Italy, northern Europe, North and South America and Australia, among other areas. (ANSA).