ROME, July 13 (Reuters) - Italian police arrested more than 200 people in dawn raids across the country on suspicion of connection with the powerful Calabrian mafia, authorities said on Tuesday, July 13.
Charges range from belonging to an organised crime group to money laundering and offences linked with the award of public works contracts.
The scale of the raids, which also included arrests in the United States, underlined the growing power of the ‘Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia that was long overshadowed by the Sicilian Cosa Nostra.
The group has long expanded out of its heartland in the poor southern region of Calabria to play a major role in organised crime throughout Europe and in the international drugs trade from South America.
