'Ndrangheta arrests in international police bust
ROME - The international reach of the ‘Ndrangheta mafia syndicate has once again been underlined, with head of the Colombian FARC discovered at the very heart of the Calabrese network, and with international forces managing to sequestrate four tonnes of cocaine Wednesday.
The investigation “Santa Fe”, headed by the Reggio Calabrian police, with the support of the USA’s Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Spanish civil guard, tracked the drug trafficking movements from Colombia to the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta mafia syndicate. The bust Wednesday has resulted in 34 arrest warrants against the suspected members of Calabria’s ‘Ndrangheta mafia, as well as the confiscation of four tonnes of cocaine. Real estate, company shares, and movable property worth five million euros in total have also been seized between Lazio and Calabria. The authorities furthermore arrested four suspects in Spain.
The unnamed Colombian FARC leader had been supplying the ‘Ndrangheta mafia with drugs from the very heart of the Amazon Rainforest. Thanks to the collaboration with the DEA, the authorities were able to monitor the movements of traffickers linked to the Calabrese mafia, in Brazil, Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Spain and Montenegro, where principal figures in the network were located.
Whilst following the investigation, the Spanish naval units with the help of the Portuguese air force and the DEA, boarded a boat containing 856 kilograms of cocaine back in August 2014. Another 725 kilograms were discovered aboard a sailing ship in the Canaries at the beginning of this year, again destined for the Calabrese gang.
Various Calabrese families, such as the Alvaro, Pesce and Coluccio-Aquino families, had worked together to manage the drug trafficking, to keep costs down and to be able to pull off an international operation that a sole family would not have had the resources to do. One of the key figures, Giuseppe Alvaro, from the Sinopoli clan, was also arrested in Tuscany.