Dozens of mafia men held in pan-European drugs bust
June 4th, 2012 - 10:18 pm ICT by IANSRome, June 4 (IANS/AKI) Dozens of mafia men were arrested, and six tonnes of cocaine and 10 million euros of assets were seized in an international anti-drugs operation launched Monday across Italy, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Spain, the Netherlands, Finland and Croatia.
The operation uncovered the trafficking operation run by the Calabrian mafia from Italy’s northwestern Piedmont region, paramilitary police said.
Police identified Swiss bank accounts linked to the drug traffickers who shipped cocaine to Europe from Venezuela, Argentina and the Dominican Republic on boats manned by Italian and foreign crews.
The Calabrian mafia or ‘Ndrangheta - Italy’s most powerful mafia - controls the European cocaine trade and has links to South American drug cartels and criminal gangs in Canada and Australia.
–IANS/AKI
pm/vt
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