mafia

The raids, in which 3,000 officers took part, were part of an investigation which has allowed a glimpse of the Calabrian mafia’s new pyramid power structure and exposed its creeping control over businesses and politicians in northern Italy, where 160 of the arrests were carried out.

The Italian senate stood to applaud the arrests, which were described by the interior minister, Roberto Maroni, as “absolutely the most important operation against the ‘Ndrangheta in recent years”.

The arrests of leading members of many of the group’s 150 clans, on charges ranging from murder to drugs and arms trafficking to loan sharking, was a blow “to the heart of the ‘Ndrangheta’s organisational and financial structure,” added Maroni.

Once a poor relation of Sicily’s Cosa Nostra and the Neapolitan Camorra, the ‘Ndrangheta started life kidnapping for ransom and hiding its victims in the mountainous wilds of Calabria before it entered the cocaine trade in partnership with Colombian cartels and built its revenue to an estimated €44bn, equal to the combined GDP of Slovenia and Estonia.
Oppedisano was reportedly appointed head of ‘Ndrangheta, Italy’s most powerful crime group, at a wedding last year and served as “the reference point for the entire organization.”

The operation, involving 3,000 police officers across the country, was considered one of the biggest blow to ‘Ndrangheta.

‘Ndrangheta, with its dominance in the European cocaine trade, is now considered Italy’s most dangerous mafia, rivaling Sicily’s Cosa Nostra.