IL TEMPO, ANSA (Italy)
ROME – Italian police arrested at least 116 people Friday, in two major anti-mafia operations in Rome and the southern Calabria region.
In pre-dawn raids along the coast near Rome, some 500 police officers apprehended 51 people. A helicopter, dog units and maritime police took part in what the Italian news agency, Ansa, calls the largest anti-mafia operation undertaken in and around the Itallian capital.
Also on Friday, a separate blitz was launched in Lamezia Terme, in Calabria – the heartland of ‘Ndrangheta mob syndicate – Rome daily, Il Tempo, reports. Another 65 arrest warrants were issued in this southern region from where the clan runs an international crime network.
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Lamezia Terme, where 65 people were arrested – photo: Lametino
Investigators told Ansa, these long-prepared operations targeted “” the “holy of holies’ of the Roman and Sicilian crime.”” Businessmen, politicians, lawyers, doctors and prison employees are among those targeted. Some of the suspects are believed to be involved in an insurance fraud system that financed the purchase of arms and drugs, while others are linked to murders and conspiracy to commit murder.
