News from Italy

[scagghiuni]

‘Ndrangheta, another maxi blitz in Calabria: 61 precautionary measures

https://news.italy24.press/local/532334.html

[scagghiuni]

‘Ndrangheta, another maxi blitz in Calabria: 61 precautionary measures

https://news.italy24.press/local/532334.html

Italian mafia: Police arrest 61 suspected 'Ndrangheta in widespread raids

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65552961

[scagghiuni]

Relations between ‘Ndrangheta and Sacra Corona Unita: 16 arrests in Puglia

https://news.italy24.press/local/546597.html

[Strax]

2.7 tons of cocaine in banana shipment seized in Calabria. Exactly a month ago 2 tons of cocaine were seized in Catania. Almost 5 tons seized in a month, crazy amounts.

https://www.dw.com/en/italy-police-seiz ... a-65636405

[CabriniGreen]

2.7 tons of cocaine in banana shipment seized in Calabria. Exactly a month ago 2 tons of cocaine were seized in Catania. Almost 5 tons seized in a month, crazy amounts.

https://www.dw.com/en/italy-police-seiz ... a-65636405

It's looks to be Ndrangheta, by way of a cartel, from reports, New Jalicso probably....

[scagghiuni]

Blitz against the Camorra in Naples: 53 arrests in the Spanish Quarters

https://www.agenzianova.com/en/news/bli ... -spagnoli/

[scagghiuni]

Ndrangheta in Emilia Romagna: 41 arrests on gangs from Reggio and Crotone

https://news.italy24.press/local/587853.html

[scagghiuni]

Italy police arrest 40 mafia suspects for drug smuggling via Chinese money brokers

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/it ... 023-05-30/

[scagghiuni]

In mafia drug raids, 25 arrested in Italy, Belgium, Germany

Authorities have arrested 25 people in Italy, Belgium and Germany in pan-European raids linked to an alleged drug- trafficking ring run by the 'Ndrangheta mafia, Italian police said on Monday.

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/reuters/in ... y/48566806

[scagghiuni]

Camorra, 19 arrested. The boss spent 90 thousand euros on holidays in Sardinia

Blow to the Ferrara-Cacciaputi clan. The charges: extortion, weapons and drugs

https://www.unionesarda.it/en/italy/cam ... a-l24ap46l

[Wiseguy]

Mafia become ‘digital narcos’ thanks to Albanian gangs and Chinese financiers
The powerful ‘Ndrangheta organisation makes billions of euros a year importing cocaine from South America to Europe
By Nick Squires IN ROME
June 5, 2023


Italy’s powerful ‘Ndrangheta mafia is collaborating with Albanian gangs and Chinese money brokers in what amounts to a new “digital narcos” global operation, Italian investigators claim.

The ‘Ndrangheta has come a long way from the days when they were brigands and bandits in the dusty Aspromonte mountains of Calabria in the far south of Italy.

The mafia organisation now makes billions of euros a year importing cocaine from South America to Europe, helping to fuel a record surge in production.

“They are flexible, innovative and cosmopolitan,” said General Pasquale Angelosanto, the commander of a special unit of the Carabinieri that fights Italy’s various mafia networks. “They are now a mafia without borders.”

The ‘Ndrangheta has forged new partnerships with Albanian gangs who control access to the big European container ports through which the cocaine is shipped.

And mafia bosses move money around the world with the help of unlicensed Chinese brokers who specialise in cryptocurrencies, allowing them to move money around the world quickly and anonymously.

“There is an ever-closer rapport between the Italian mafias and foreign groups, among them the Albanians, who apart from being brokers who buy the narcotics in the producer countries, guarantee that tonnes of cocaine, hidden in containers, can pass through ports in northern Europe,” Gen. Angelosanto told La Repubblica newspaper.

‘Ndrangheta one of most evolved criminal networks’

“There has also been an evolution in the transfer of funds which are used to pay for the drugs. The ‘Ndrangheta use Chinese specialists who have at their disposal millions (in various currencies) all over the world.”

Mafia bosses are also adept at using “sophisticated financial instruments” as they move money around, investing the proceeds from drug trafficking in legitimate businesses, from hotels and restaurants to car wash outlets and supermarkets.

“The ‘Ndrangheta is one of the most evolved of all criminal networks - they are like a criminal holding company with multiple interests and have infiltrated legal economic sectors.

“To evade investigations, they use all the most sophisticated tools, for example, encrypted telephone communications,” said Gen. Angelosanto.

“They use FinTech to obtain services and financial products or use cryptocurrencies to transfer capital instantly and anonymously in any part of the planet.”

The Calabrian mafia has long had global ambitions, said the Carabinieri commander, quoting a mafia informant who told him: “The ‘Ndrangheta won’t stop in Reggio Calabria (one of the main cities in the region). They’re in Canada, Australia, America…in every part of the world.”

The ‘Ndrangheta - the word comes from a pair of Greek words, namely “andros” and “agathos” and means “valiant man” - may be hugely wealthy but they are not immune to raids and arrests.

Last month, police across Europe arrested 132 people in what was hailed as a serious blow to the organised crime network.

The raids followed an investigation that spanned Italy, other European countries such as Germany and Spain, as well as Panama and Brazil.

Suspects were accused of being involved in trafficking drugs from South America to Europe and Australia. Some were also accused of running weapons from Pakistan to South America as a way of paying for cocaine shipments.

Eurojust, the EU’s agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation, described the operation as “the largest-ever coordinated hit against Italian organised crime”.

Italian mafia ‘in league’ with Albanian criminal groups

‘Ndrangheta clan members were involved not just in drug trafficking but also money laundering, weapons trafficking, tax fraud and tax evasion.

Investigators had found that the Italian mafia was in league with Albanian criminal groups operating in Ecuador and several European countries.
They had made “massive investments” in Italy as well as Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and across Europe, Eurojust said.

Assessing how much the ‘Ndrangheta makes each year is hard because its activities are by nature clandestine.

An Italian research group, Eurispes, has estimated its annual turnover to be around €44 billion.

The crime syndicate’s strength lies in its traditional family loyalties as well as demonstrating “maximum flexibility” in exploring new business opportunities, according to Italy’s Anti-Mafia Investigative Directorate.

The global production of cocaine has bounced back after stalling during the pandemic and is now at record levels, a report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime found in March.

Around 10 tonnes of cocaine is smuggled into Britain each year from ports such as Hamburg, Rotterdam and Antwerp.

The large Albanian diaspora “often works in conjunction with Italian criminal groups”, the report said.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/ ... financier/

[scagghiuni]

Camorra carried shopping to the poor during the pandemic, 20 arrests

https://news.italy24.press/local/613650.html

[antimafia]

Silvio Berlusconi has passed away.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65877241

[Wiseguy]

More than 30 arrested in latest Italy raid against 'Ndrangheta mafia
Reuters
June 27, 2023

MILAN, June 27 (Reuters) - Dozens of people have been arrested in a new police raid against the 'Ndrangheta mafia that has revealed how its multiple illegal activities have spread as far as Austria and Germany, Italian authorities said on Tuesday.

Suspects, including politicians from the 'Ndrangheta home region of Calabria, face charges including mafia association, murder, extortion, fraud, rigging of public contracts, bribery and vote buying, police said in a statement.

Catanzaro Prosecutor Nicola Gratteri, one of Italy's best-known anti-Mafia investigators, said in a press conference that regional politicians and public administrators had been "subjugated" by mobsters during 2014-2020.

Police said 22 people have been jailed, 12 put under house arrest, four suspended from office and three given orders not to leave their home town, and a total of 123 people are under investigation, including a former governor of Calabria.

Prosecutors from the German town of Stuttgart and the German federal police cooperated with the investigation, they added.

In a press release European police organisation Europol, which supported the action, said those detained were predominantly Italian but included German and Austrian nationals.

The alleged 'Ndrangheta network ran illegal trades from the south to the north of Italy in real estate, catering, fruit and vegetable and livestock trading, security services and video-poker, Italian police said.

Mobsters also did business with an Austrian fruit and vegetable trader and used German hackers to carry out fraudulent banking and financial transactions on clandestine trading platforms, according to the police.

Tuesday's sting follows two other major anti-'Ndrangheta raids in May, which led to more than 100 arrests across Europe and to the discovery of a drug smuggling ring that relied on shadow networks of Chinese money brokers.

The 'Ndrangheta, which has its roots in the southern Italian region of Calabria, has surpassed Sicily's Cosa Nostra as Italy's most powerful mafia group, and is considered one of the largest criminal networks in the world.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/mo ... 023-06-27/

[OcSleeper]

Tommaso Natale, Partanna Mondello, Zen: the mafia triangle "smells like mussels"
https://www.rainews.it/tgr/sicilia/arti ... ab451.html