"The European operation 'Eureka' against the 'Ndrangheta this morning led to about 150 searches in eight European countries. It is undoubtedly the largest operation ever carried out against the Calabrian mafia in Europe".
This was reported by the spokesmen of the Belgian federal prosecutor's office at a press conference.
"More than a thousand policemen were involved in the searches this morning in Germany and three thousand in Italy", explain the spokesmen, indicating that the raids also touched "Spain, Portugal, France, Romania and Slovenia".
"There are elements to think that the people arrested" in Belgium this morning "were connected to the trafficking of cocaine between South America and Europe and there are sufficient indications to think that the port of Antwerp was used for such trafficking", he said. said the Belgian magistrate, Antoon Schotsaert, on the sidelines of the press conference on the operation carried out in eight countries, including Belgium.
"The quantities arriving reasonably suggest that the final market for the drug was not just Belgium," explained Schotsaert.
"There were thirteen total arrests in Belgium, seven of which with a European arrest warrant issued by Italy which requested delivery to the
Italian authorities", added Schotsaert, specifying that "the delivery times to Italy could require some months depending on their position before the judges".
Three luxury vehicles, at least 20,000 euros in cash and various prohibited weapons were also seized
Six tons of cocaine were moved between May 2020 and January 2022 by the 'Ndrangheta gangs hit this morning by the "Eureka" operation, three of which were seized by investigators.
During the investigations, contacts were recorded between
the most important gangs of the Reggio Calabrian district with members of the Gulf clan, the Colombian paramilitary organization engaged in international drug trafficking.
The Carabinieri del Ros and the Provincial Command of Reggio Calabria, in fact, have reconstructed numerous episodes of
drug importation that arrived, by sea, in the ports of Gioia Tauro, Antwerp and Colon.
The investigators have also reconstructed the flows of money attributable to drug sales which were managed by organizations made up of subjects of foreign nationality, specialized in pick-up money, or by shoulder men who moved cash on European territory.
The movements involved Panama, Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Overall , the sums moved in these ways
are around 22 million and 300 thousand euros.
Money that in part would have been reused in the purchase of cars and luxury goods, as well as used to start and finance commercial activities in France, Portugal and Germany, where it was also recycled by exploiting car wash activities.
Company and asset seizures and arrests were also carried out in Germany.
Coordinated by the head of the National Anti-Mafia Directorate Giovanni Melillo, the "Eureka" investigation was developed in the context of two joint investigative teams: one between the DDA of Reggio Calabria directed by Giovanni Bombardieri, and the German prosecutors of Munich I, Koblenz , Saarbrücken and Düsseldorf;
the other between the Reggina DDA, the Office of the investigating judge of the Court of Limburg and the Federal Prosecutor
of Brussels.
Both investigative teams were coordinated by Eurojust, which ensured maximum operational support, through the Italian component Filippo Spiezia.
At the same time as the blitz by the carabinieri in Calabria, which involved numerous European countries and Australia, and the operations of the Milan and Genoa DDAs, the Belgian and German judicial authorities are carrying out respectively 15 and 24 restrictive measures, issued by the local judicial authorities against further suspects for drug trafficking and money laundering crimes.
The investigating judge of Reggio Calabria, at the request of the Dda, ordered the preventive seizure of assets for around 25 million euros.
The provision was implemented in Italy, Portugal, Germany and France and concerned commercial companies and movable and immovable property.
The investigation took a snapshot of the existence and functioning of three maxi-criminal associations aimed at international drug trafficking, headed by the most powerful 'Ndrangheta families in the Ionian area.
The investigation, in fact, concerned the Pelle, Strangio, Nirta, Giampaolo, Mammoliti and Giorgi clans, which have decision-making offices in the Reggio area and branches and logistic bases in various regions of Italy and abroad.
The investigation started in June 2019, thanks to the connection between the carabinieri and the Belgian federal police who were investigating some subjects believed to be close to the Nirta di San Luca gang active in Genk.
At first, it was oriented towards some members of the Strangio family, called
"Fracascia", attributable to the Nirta clan.
Gradually they were extended to various families of the Locride area, also involving the Bianco restaurant.
The money from drug trafficking was laundered in the restaurant, tourism and real estate sectors.
The first reconstructed association concerns the Nirta "Versu" family of San Luca which had an articulation in Brazil represented by the fugitive Vincenzo Pasquino, captured in 2021 together with the boss Rocco Morabito.
The second refers to the Mammoliti "Fischiante" family of Bovalino with joints in Puglia, Abruzzo, Lazio, Tuscany and Lombardy and direct contacts with South American suppliers of cocaine and with international traffickers such as Denis Matoshi, currently a fugitive in Dubai.
The third, however, belongs to the Strangio "Fracascia" family connected with the Nirta-Strangio gangs involved in the 2007 Duisburg massacre.
This third organization, according to the investigators, had stable branches in Genk (Belgium), Munich (Germany), Spain and Canberra (Australia).
The investigation also shed light on the fugitive of the boss Rocco Morabito, known as "Tamunga", already a fugitive of maximum danger included in the special search program of the Interior Ministry, arrested by the carabinieri in Brazil in 2021, together with Vincenzo Pasquino, a fugitive at the time for the DDA of Turin.
Both appear in the ordinance executed today at the request of the Dda which availed itself of the collaboration, among others,
of the Brazilian Federal Police, the FBI, DEA and Interpol.
Morabito, according to the indictment, also offered a container of war weapons to a Brazilian paramilitary organization in exchange for large quantities of drugs to the port of Gioia Tauro.
"During the investigation - writes the investigating judge in the ordinance - the organization by Morabito of a shipment to Brazil of a container full of war
weapons, coming from the countries of the former Soviet Union, was documented, provided that a criminal organization operating in Italy and Pakistan".
In Italy, the carabinieri del Ros and the provincial command of Reggio Calabria arrested 108 people - 85 in prison - in execution of four precautionary custody orders issued by the investigating judge at the request of the Reggio Dda.
The suspects are accused in various capacities of mafia association;
external competition and international drug trafficking with the aggravating circumstance of transnationality and large quantities;
arms trafficking, including for war;
recycling;
aiding and abetting;
fraudulent transfer and procured non-compliance with the penalty.