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.
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