ROME – The mafia scandal continued to unfold on Thursday, as arrests linked the Roman gang to the ‘ndrangheta, and the Democratic Party was heckled and accused of collusion in Parliament.

 The sprawling investigation into corruption and organised crime in the capital has discovered that the Roman mob was not independent, as previously thought, but in fact had links to the notorious Calabrian mafia.

 The police announced on Thursday that a further two arrests had been made in relation to the case. Rocco Rotolo and Salvatore Ruggiero are suspected of acting as middle-men between the Roman mob and the ‘ndrangheta. The two were allegedly sent to Calabria by high-profile alleged gang member Salvatore Buzzi, who was arrested last week, to liaise with ‘ndrangheta bosses on areas of mutual interest.

 Meanwhile there were chaotic scenes in Parliament on Thursday afternoon as members of the anti-establishment Five Stars Movement (M5S) heckled members of the Democratic Party (PD), with one member Giuseppe Brescia yelling, “When I come in here I see the mafia with my own eyes, every day.”

 PD member and Roman Mayor, Ignazio Marino, has not been embroiled in the scandal. This week he pointed the finger at his right-wing opponents, pre-eminent amongst whom being his predecessor Gianni Alemanno, the most high-profile figure under investigation by the police. Many of those implicated in the probe were political allies of Alemanno.

 However, many have cast aspersions about the current PD city administration, as demonstrated by the outbursts in the Chamber of Deputies. Marino has struck back at these allegations, saying, “Some in our party may have erred, but the criminal structure was born within Alemanno's right wing.”

 The full extent of the organised crime syndicate evidently has yet to come to light; but with over 100 people under investigation and alleged operations across the city rigging contracts in everything from waste disposal to migrant reception, the potential ripple effect of the case is vast.

 Matteo Orfini, the man appointed by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi as a special commisar to take over the leadership of the Democratic Party in Rome, has warned that the task of cleaning up the grouping is a serious one. He admitted that in recent years the party’s Rome operations had become an “endless war,” “organised not for the sake of politics but for that of power.”