Italy police arrest more than 100 people in Mafia crackdown
More than 100 people
suspected of Mafia involvement were
arrested Friday in Italy as police launched
two separate operations near Rome and in
the country's southern Calabria region.
Police made 51 arrests in Ostia, a coastal
community on the outskirts of the capital, for
alleged crimes connected to the Sicilian
Mafia, known as Cosa Nostra, police said in a
statement.
An additional 65 people were detained in a
separate operation in Calabria, where those
arrested are suspected of links to the
powerful 'Ndrangheta Mafia.
The operation in Ostia is one of the largest
ever carried out against organized crime in
the Rome area, a police news release said.
More than 500 police officers, as well as
maritime and dog units, were involved, police
said.
The alleged crimes under investigation in
Ostia range from extortion to murder, to
international drug trafficking to illegally
controlling the slot machine market and
business activities related to the beach,
police said.
Police say their operation has delivered a
"mortal blow" to the leadership of the Mafia
organization in the capital.
Entire Mafia clans have been hit by the
arrests, they say. Among those detained are
alleged Mafia boss Carmine Fasciani.
Members of another Mafia clan, Vincenzo
Triassi and his wife, have been arrested on
the Spanish island of Tenerife thanks to
coordination with Interpol, another police
statement said.
They are being held in a Spanish jail awaiting
extradition proceedings, police said.
Politicians, businessman, lawyers, doctors
and even members of the prison police were
arrested in the second operation, which
targeted Mafia leadership around Lamezia
Terme, a city in Calabria, another police
news release said.
Those arrested are accused of crimes
including murder, criminal association and
extortion, it said.
Every year, the release said, the criminal
gang made millions of euros through a
system of insurance fraud, with the funds
used to finance the acquisition of arms and
drugs.
"We are particularly satisfied with the
investigation," Rodolfo Ruperti, police chief
of the city of Catanzaro, whose force carried
out the Lamezia Terme operation, told CNN
by telephone.
He said the inquiry shone a spotlight on the
"gray area" of relations among politicians,
businessmen and Mafia groups suspected of
carrying out dozens of murders in past years.
