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Emergency vehicle of the Italian financial police (symbol image)
Photo: Riccardo Fabi / Pacific Press Agency / IMAGO
Italian investigators took action against around 140 suspected mafiosi in two nationwide operations.
On the mainland, police arrested 65 suspects in southern Italy's Calabria and 13 in northern Brescia, authorities said on Tuesday.
They are said to belong to the Calabrian mafia 'Ndrangheta.
The public prosecutor accuses them of mafia association, drug trafficking, money laundering and extortion.
According to the information, the majority ended up in prison, the rest were placed under house arrest or received reporting requirements.
The investigations allowed the investigators to look deeper into the inner workings of the notorious 'Ndrangheta clan "cosca Bellocco" from Rosarno, near the port of Gioia Tauro, as the statement said.
The family has been active there for several generations in the drug and arms trade.
After the death of the longtime leader in October, his grandson took over the leadership.
Gioia Tauro is considered an important transshipment point in the international drug trade.
Ships from South America arrive there.
In the past, the port authorities made massive cocaine finds worth millions in shipping containers.
The 'Ndrangheta is one of the leading mafia organizations in the European drug trade.
In another operation against organized crime on the island of Sicily, the police said they arrested around 60 people.
48 of them went to prison.
The suspects have to answer for drug trafficking between Calabria and Sicily.
According to the authorities, they operated mainly in Messina, where ferries arrive from the Calabrian metropolitan region of Reggio Calabria.
wit/dpa