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.
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