Friday, December 4, 2015

Italy Breaks Up Major Mafia Cocaine Ring in Venice

 
Reuters, 04/12 17:03 CET

By Steve Scherer

ROME (Reuters) – Italian police arrested nine people and seized 130 kilos (287 pounds) of cocaine, smashing a major smuggling ring run by the Calabrian mafia that had monopolised sales of the drug in Venice, finance police said on Friday.

Among those arrested were three men suspected of being members of the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta mafia, a Colombian and two Albanians who ran a restaurant in the heart of canal-lined Venice that they used to sell drugs.

“The ‘Ndrangheta had monopolised the cocaine market in Venice,” Nicola Sibilia, a colonel in the finance police, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

As one of the main importers of cocaine to Europe from South America, the ‘Ndrangheta has eclipsed the Sicilian Mafia as Italy’s most powerful organised crime group, investigators say. 

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Source: Euronews

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