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MILAN – Police Italia arrested 40 people on Tuesday (30/5/2023), in a new targeted crackdown mafia Ndrangheta. The suspects were charged with trafficking drugs with counterparts in Latin America using a shadowy network of Chinese money brokers.
“Today’s raid is an important operation that shows how the Ndrangheta is an omnipresent octopus with worldwide interconnections,” said Guardia Police Officer in Finanza, Captain Angelo Santori, as quoted by Reuters.
The breakthrough comes less than a month after an operation in which European police arrested more than 100 mafia suspects in a major operation against drug and weapons smuggling.
Santori, who is leading the latest investigation in the northern city of Bologna, said police executed 40 arrest warrants, including for four Albanians and two Chinese suspects, and restricted the movement of suspected members of the Calabrian mafia in seven Italian regions.
The investigation, which lasted from late 2019 to July 2022, traced the traffic of 1.2 tons of cocaine, 450 kg of cannabis and 95 kg of marijuana, Guardia di Finanza police said in a statement.
According to police, the network is capable of handling drug shipments with powerful South American cartels, including Brazil’s Primeiro Comando da Capital, and Colombian, Peruvian, Mexican and Bolivian criminal organizations.
The Ndrangheta, which has roots in the southern Italian region of Calabria, has surpassed Cosa Nostra as the country’s most powerful mafia group, and one of the world’s largest criminal networks.
“An active role was played by networks of Chinese subjects through the so-called ‘fei ch’ien’, an informal money transfer system that laundered more than 5 million euros (USD 5.50 million),” added Santori.
According to Italian police, after receiving the cash, Chinese money brokers forwarded it to trading companies in China and Hong Kong. The companies then send the money to drug dealers and the South American cartels themselves through agents based abroad.
Several recent investigations have shown how drug cartels in Italy are increasingly using shadowy networks of unlicensed Chinese money brokers to hide cross-border payments.
(esn)
