Calay News
Europol and Eurojust, the EU’s police and judicial cooperation agencies, carried out a joint operation in Europe and Latin America against the ‘Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia currently considered the most powerful Italian criminal organization. The raid, which mobilized more than 2,770 police officers in eight European countries, Brazil, and Panama, led to the arrest of 132 people accused of crimes related to drug trafficking, tax fraud, arms trafficking, and money laundering.
The investigation focused on the trafficking of 25 tons of cocaine between October 2019 and January 2022, which was centered around several families in the town of San Luca, in southern Calabria. The traffickers used the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam, in Belgium and the Netherlands, as well as Spanish and Italian ports, with some of the drugs being diverted to Australia.
The operation also investigated ‘Ndrangheta’s links with a Colombian drug cartel, an Albanian mafia clan active in Ecuador, and a Brazilian mafia organization. The criminal organization was involved in arms trafficking from Pakistan and investing money in supermarkets, hotels, and real estate in at least seven countries in Europe and South America. The ‘Ndrangheta had replaced the Sicilian Cosa Nostra and the Neapolitan Camorra as the most powerful Italian criminal organization, with ramifications all over the world.
Europol described the operation as “the hardest blow” yet against the criminal organization and highlighted the international cooperation that allowed the operation to succeed. The raid is a sign of the EU’s willingness to fight cross-border organized crime and the importance of cooperation between countries to achieve this.
