MILAN, July 13 (Reuters) - Italian police arrested at least 320 people on Tuesday in dawn raids across the country against the powerful Calabrian mafia, in one of the biggest crackdowns on organised crime in years.
The raids followed a wide-ranging investigation into a clan specialising in crimes linked to business and the financial sector, and exposed its deep penetration in Lombardy — Italy’s economic hub and one of Europe’s richest regions.
Police said the investigation, carried out with the extensive use of wire taps, had given them new insights into the organisation of the ‘Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia which is far less well understood than its Sicilian counterpart, the Cosa Nostra.
The group has 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. It has an estimated annual turnover of 44 billion euros — or 3 percent of Italy’s economy.
Police said the probe had revealed the presence of criminal cells in Germany, Switzerland, Canada and Australia.
Now regarded as the most powerful of Italy’s four criminal syndicates, the ‘Ndrangheta was so believed to have a horizontal structure made of a myriad of family-based clans.
Instead, police said that among those arrested was Domenico Oppedisano, considered its "boss of bosses", and Pino Neri, the mafia group’s alleged leader in Lombardy.
Also arrested were small entrepreneurs and four members of the Carabinieri police, while several local officials in Lombardy were put under investigation.
"This is without doubt the most important operation against the ‘Ndrangheta of recent years," said Interior Minister Roberto Maroni.
Italian authorities had initially said arrests were also made in the United States but later said that was not the case.
Charges range from belonging to an organised crime group to murder, drugs-trafficking, money laundering and offences linked with the awarding of public works contracts.
Investigators said the ‘Ndrangheta had tried to reap profits from public tenders for the 2015 Expo which Milan is hosting.
The mobsters were so brazen that on at least one occasion they met at a club near Milan named after Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, two prominent magistrates killed by the Mafia in the 1990s.
