38 more probed in 'Ndrangheta waste, vote-buying case
Pols and businessmen linked to Calabrian Mob over illegal waste

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 24 - Some 38 more people have been placed under investigation in two strands of a major Florence probe into mafia vote buying and illegal toxic waste disposal by the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta mafia in Tuscany, judicial sources said Thursday.
The probe has uncovered links between Tuscan businessmen and the Calabrian Mob, the sources said.
Some 26 more people including politicians, public officials and businessmen linked to the Gallace Clan of Guardavalle near Catanzaro were placed under investigation in the first strand.
A further 12 more were placed under investigation in the second stand of the probe, including clan members, one regional official and a regional councillor for the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), Claudio Pieroni, who allegedly worked hard to get an amendment on toxic waste disposal approved.
'Ndrangheta, which is Italy's richest and most powerful mafia, has spread from its southern base to more affluent northern Italian regions as well as most of the developed world.
It controls much of the European cocaine trade. (ANSA).

Two European arrest warrants were active against him
In Italy the fugitive Mario Palamara, drug broker for the 'Ndrangheta, arrested in Spain
He was also wanted to serve a sentence of 14 years and 4 months for illicit drug trafficking and complicity in money laundering
3:21 pm

Mario Palamara , a prominent fugitive from the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta who was arrested last October 11 in Fuengirola (Spain), has arrived in Fiumicino from Spain .

53 years old, from Melito Porto Salvo (RC), to all intents and purposes broker of the 'Ndrangheta, was operating in Tuscany and more specifically at the port of Livorno and was wanted by judges and police forces from different parts of Italy since 2015.

Palamara was a man of weight in the world of drug trafficking and was one of the dominus for the port of Livorno to bring loads of tons of cocaine. This is why the prosecutor's office in Florence was looking for him, which also followed in his footsteps in Catanzaro, where the trafficking of Palamara ended up at the center of the "Molo 13" investigation, which revealed a cocaine import operation worth one million euros, passed through Holland. "Now we have entered into an industrial perspective", one of his men informed him, pleased with the departing load.

The arrest, in Spain, came about thanks to the profitable investigative synergy carried out between the Central Operational Service (SCO) of the State Police, the Central Service for Investigation of Organized Crime (SCICO) of the Guardia di Finanza, the Central Directorate for Anti-Drugs (DCSA), the International Police Cooperation Service – I-CAN Project (Interpol Cooperation Against 'Ndrangheta), the Udyco Central of the Spanish Policia Nacional.

Against him were active two European arrest warrants issued by the Florentine Judicial Authority at the request of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate for crimes of criminal association aimed at the importation of narcotic substances and for the manufacture of false documents with the aggravating circumstance of the purpose of committing other crimes in relation to investigations conducted by the Mobile Squads of the Florence and Livorno Police Headquarters.

He was also wanted to serve a sentence of 14 years and 4 months for illicit drug trafficking and complicity in money laundering imposed on him by the Court of Appeal of Venice at the end of lengthy investigations conducted by the GICO of the Guardia di Finanza of Venice and coordinated by the District Directorate Antimafia of the Venetian capital.

Also in Catanzaro he was the recipient of an order for precautionary custody in prison issued by the GIP at the Court, at the request of the local District Anti-Mafia Directorate in relation to investigations conducted by the GICO, for international cocaine trafficking.

Palamara was handed over by the Spanish police to the agents of the I-CAN Project of the International Police Cooperation Service of the Central Directorate of the Criminal Police, who handed it over to the Penitentiary Police.

The man is the cousin of Antonio Campisi, son of the well-known drug trafficking broker, Domenico Campisi (born in 1967), murdered with lupara shots at dawn on 17 June 2011 in the Comerconi hamlet in Nicotera, in the Vibonese area, considered very close to the 'Ndrangheta clan of the Mancuso. His son Antonio, on the other hand, as a fugitive on the run, was captured on 17 December 2021 because he was accused by the Catanzaro DDA of the attempted murder of Domenic Signoretta.

Arrest, that of Campisi, inserted in the context of a cross-revenge, and linked to the murder of his father , as reconstructed by the investigators of the DDA of Reggio Calabria with the "New European Narcos" operation, thanks to the story of a collaborator of justice, Arcangelo Furfaro, according to whom Domenico Campisi was killed by Domenic Signoretta and Giuseppe Mancuso (cl. '89), son of Pantaleone "the engineer" because he "trafficked drugs with the Molès, keeping Pantaleone Mancuso in the dark about everything" .

Polish police make arrests in money laundering case related to Ndrangheta
kk/rl 30.11.2022, 13:08

Three women have been arrested in an operation targeting Italy’s most powerful crime family, the ‘Ndrangheta, Polish police reported on Wednesday.

The ‘Ndrangheta is based in the southern region of Calabria, the toe of Italy’s boot, and has surpassed Cosa Nostra to become the most powerful mafia group in the country – and one of the largest crime gangs in the world.

The women, all in their forties, were detained on the basis of European Arrest Warrants issued by Italy on the suspicion of their involvement in an Italian mafia organisation and money laundering.

They were board members of fictitious companies whose accounts were used to transfer the money of criminal groups, police said.

The women are suspected of taking part in tax evasion to the detriment of the Italian state budget and laundering money from criminal activities.

“The criminal group operated in Poland and Italy. Its members created companies and issued forged documents that confirmed fictitious transactions,” Justyna Pasieczy?ska, spokesperson for the Polish National Revenue Administration, said.

“The value of fictitious transactions is estimated at over EUR 50 mln,” she added.

The entire group consisted of at least 30 people cooperating with the ‘Ndrangheta. Suspects’ property worth almost EUR 12 mln was seized, including four villas located at the seaside and mountain resorts, cars, motorcycles, jewellery and luxury watches, she added.

The women, who will now be extradited to Italy, gave cash to couriers who took it back to Italy. Two of these couriers were arrested with nearly EUR 500,000 in their car.

One of the detained women admitted that she had withdrawn over EUR 15 mln from banks to be transferred in this way.
source: REUTERS

The Emilian 'Ndrangheta association is headed by 4 brothers , all originating from the province of Crotone, Nicolino, Gianluigi and Carmine Sarcone and Giuseppe Sarcone Grande.

Nicolino Sarcone


‘Ndrangheta: ‘Perseverance’ trial, 22 sentences in Bologna – Emilia-Romagna
LOCALEugenia Local about 12 hours ago REPORT

The highest penalty is the 18 years inflicted on Giuseppe Sarcone Grande, considered at the time of his arrest one of the leaders of the Emilian ‘Ndrangheta. The abbreviated trial of the ‘Perseverance’ operation, which began on 12 March 2021 in the wake of the ‘Aemilia’ and ‘Grimilde’ investigations, ended before the Gup of the Bologna court Claudio Paris with 22 convictions, two acquittals and 14 plea bargains. The investigation, coordinated by prosecutor Beatrice Ronchi, focused on the infiltration of the clans into the economy of the area where the Emilian gang, as other sentences have sanctioned, is an autonomous and deep-rooted group.
The judge inflicted 16 years on Salvatore Muto, 15 on Domenico Cordua, 14 years and four months on Giuseppe Friyio, 14 on Salvatore Procopio, 13 years and 4 months on Giuseppe Caso, 8 years on Alberto Alboresi, Genoveffa Colucciello and Nicolino Sarcone.

A murder committed on a bicycle. Pasquale Aquino , 50, was killed on 3 May by two killers in the Schiavonea district of Corigliano Rossano. The man was returning home when he was joined by the assassins who arrived riding two bikes: there was no escape for Aquino.
The District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Catanzaro, directed by Nicola Gratteri, has shed full light on the crime connected to the activities of a mafia group made up of young picciotti looking for space in the criminal world of the large Ionian city.
The material executor of the crime is indicated in Francesco Lepera, 21 years old, who allegedly acted in the company of an even younger accomplice.
Five other people ended up in handcuffs, including Giorgio Arturi, considered very close to Lepera. On the other hand, a woman was forced to stay for aiding and abetting and an eighth person was assigned to house arrest.

Maxi blitz against the 'Ndrangheta in Linz in Austria

The operation launched yesterday evening involved 120 policemen and carabinieri in numerous searches on the basis of an international rogatory requested by the Catanzaro prosecutor's office

BOLZANO – Last night the Austrian police carried out a vast operation against the 'Ndrangheta, in which 120 Austrian policemen and also some carabinieri took part. The blitz was triggered on the basis of an international rogatory requested by the Catanzaro prosecutor's office. A total of 14 places were searched , primarily pizzerias but also offices and apartments . At the center of the investigation would be a restaurant manager who operates in Austria and Bavaria suspected – according to what the Austrian press writes – of being affiliated with the 'Ndrangheta. In Austria the investigation is in the hands of the public prosecutors of Linz and Steyr.

The 'Ndrangheta in the crosshairs of the Italian justice system
December 08, 2022
In addition to the mega trial in Palermo against the Cosa Nostra, in 2021 the Italian judiciary started proceedings against more than 400 suspects associated with the 'Ndrangheta. But this mighty mafia is far from finished!

Proven research methods

The investigators first focused on a so-called cosca or 'ndrina family, about which they collected a lot of information about its members and activities and drew up an organizational chart. The statements of the rare regret optants (pentiti) within the 'Ndrangheta were used. Based on this, they conducted telephone taps and financial investigations.
These studies have confirmed the previously gathered knowledge about this organization and at the same time provided new insights.


An incredible growth

The 'Ndrangheta is no longer the rural organization of the sixties. Its strength comes from the mixture of conservatism and innovation. She is organizationally very closed, but at the same time open to the world when it comes to criminal activities.
The organization is active in a dozen Italian regions and is said to be the only one with branches on all continents, in particular in South America, Europe, Australia and now also in Asia.

Wherever she is active she uses the same modus operandi and organizational model: a network of more or less autonomous families with networks of accomplices in different institutions. It does not hesitate to join other criminal organizations such as the South American cartels or Albanian groups.


Variety of criminal activities

The 'Ndrangheta is suspected to have privileged ties to drug cartels, giving it a very dominant position in the cocaine trade in Europe. However, this position is reportedly weakened in favor of numerous new players, such as the increasingly active Moroccan criminal organizations.

In addition, it has not given up on extortionate lending fostered by the economic crisis that many small businesses suffered during the pandemic. In the absence of interest payments, which often exceed 100%, she does not hesitate to take control of companies that extort from them (il pizzo). These companies are then used for money laundering or as a weapons storage facility. If the manager or director keeps his job, he is just a stooge.

In contrast to Cosa Nostra, it acts rather hidden, commits fewer murders and, above all, avoids direct confrontation with the state as much as possible. With the profits from the drug trade, she can bribe officials, place pawns in government departments and persuade her victims to vote for the candidates they support (vote swapping). For example, in the above-mentioned trial trade unionists, police officers, magistrates and elected officials are on trial.

There are no concrete figures, but it is estimated that she earns several billion euros a year that are reinvested in the legal economy, such as in hotels or vineyards abroad. It also acquires many properties at low prices through "mafia expropriation" based on threats.
It also meddles in public procurement by charging 3 to 5% to the successful bidders. The Italian judiciary says that they encounter "white collars" everywhere when they investigate the 'Ndrangheta.
The money laundered by the 'Ndrangheta mainly comes from the cocaine that enters Italy via the ports of Genoa, Livorno and Gioia Tauro, but also via Rotterdam and Antwerp.


Not an easy battle

Despite this extensive process, it seems difficult for the Italian judiciary to fight the 'Ndrangheta, the least prosecuted mafia organization.

It is believed to have about 7,000 members, probably a gross underestimation, in addition to a slew of accomplices. Its members are closely linked by blood, which partly explains the few regrets. However, it is mainly the "employees of justice" who have made it possible to achieve great successes against Cosa Nostra.

She does not shy away from bribery to protect herself and knows how to use the loopholes in the legislation. For example, it invests in countries where the legislation is more flexible in certain respects than in Italy (Spain, Switzerland or Belgium). It is generally underestimated in Europe and coordination and international legal assistance need to be improved.
Extradition to the Italian judiciary often encounters procedural obstacles.

Investigators are now confronted with "white collar and suit" criminals with great economic and political clout. Many of the children of members of the 'Ndrangheta have gone to the world's top universities.

‘Ndrangheta in Lombardy, ten arrests in Pioltello

https://news.italy24.press/local/263511.html

interesting... the 'Ndrangheta ask to vote for her politicians even the foreign communities, albanians and pakistanis


The Manno-Maiolo clan allegedly carried out an “obvious electoral campaign” in the Pioltello administrations in favor of the center-right mayoral candidate
The Manno-Maiolo clan of ‘Ndrangheta di Pioltello, in the province of Milan, would have “blatantly campaigned” in the administrative elections of October 2021 in favor of the then mayoral candidate Claudius Fina and the aspiring councilor for urban planning Menni Marcello, both supported by a centre-right coalition. For this the pm of the Dda, Paul Storari, he also disputes the alleged crime of the suspects electoral coercion.

In particular, the alleged boss Cosimo Maiolo – according to the investigations conducted by the Flying Squad – he would have organized “an electoral banquet” in the fishpond managed by his son for the two politicians. And he also allegedly invited the “foreign community”, specifically “Albanians and Pakistanis” to vote for Fina and Menni, “publicly demonstrating the support of the ‘Ndrangheta” for the two candidates.

Mafia: ten police arrests in Milan
Electoral coercion is also among the crimes charged
ANSA Editorial Staff
December 12, 2022

The State Police of Milan, coordinated by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate, is executing a precautionary custody order against a dozen people held responsible for mafia-type criminal association, electoral coercion, drug trafficking, attempted extortion, attempted murder and other crimes all aggravated by the mafia method.

The activity of the policemen of the Flying Squad shed light on the dynamics of the 'Ndrangheta club in Pioltello, a fiefdom of the Maiolo-Manno families, and on the activities of a person attributable to the Pietraperzia Cosa Nostra family, connected to the Rinzivillos.

'Ndrangheta, maxi raid by the carabinieri: 78 arrests in various regions
CHRONICLE
Dec 13, 2022 - 07:08
Joint operation between the military of Gioia Tauro and Brescia. The gangs affected are the Belloccos of Rosarno, the Spadas of Ostia and the Lamari-Larosa-Pesces of the Gioia Tauro plain. Sequestration for 5 million euros

Maxi operation by the carabinieri which led to a series of precautionary measures in various regions during a joint action against the 'Ndrangheta: the soldiers of the Gioia Tauro Group (Reggio Calabria) completed 65 arrests - 47 in prison, 16 under house arrest - and two residence obligations, while the Ros of Brescia finalized 13 arrests - 12 in prison, one under house arrest. The gangs affected are the Belloccos of Rosarno, the Spadas of Ostia (two recipients of the measure) and the Lamari-Larosa-Pesces of the Gioia Tauro plain. As regards the Brescia blitz, the ROS worked together with the Guardia di Finanza for a preventive seizure of businesses, real estate, company shares for a value of around 5 million.

The new assets of the Bellocco clan have been discovered

The suspects are accused in various capacities of mafia association, external competition, carrying and possession of common and war weapons, extortion, usury, damage, aggravated by the mafia method, as well as association aimed at drug trafficking, money laundering, self-laundering and criminal association aimed at tax crimes and fraud to the detriment of the State. New structures of the Bellocco gang - at the top of the "Rosarno company", with interests throughout the national territory and in various foreign countries - have been brought to light on the Reggio front of the operation. The investigation, called 'Blue night' was carried out by the carabinieri of the Gioia Tauro investigative unit between September 2019 and August 2020 against prominent members of the clan.

An alliance between the Bellocco clan of Rosarno and the Spada clan to manage the traffic of drug on the Roman coast. But above all to ensure that some Calabrians, owners of commercial establishments a Host and Anzio, they had no problems in the area. There is also this in the investigation by the Ros dei Carabinieri coordinated by the Reggio Calabria prosecutor’s office, led by the prosecutor Giovanni Bombardieri. And among the 76 arrests yesterday, there are also three suspects linked to the Spada clan: Manuel Granato, who is serving a six-and-a-half-year definitive sentence for some extortion and threats in the context of the occupation of social housing in Ostia, but also for the legs against the Baficchio; Samy Serour “Sammy the Egyptian” and his brother Ramy who, on behalf of the clan, would have managed pizzerias and commercial premises in Ostia.

Ostia, fear in the market: man wounded with scissors. He had quarreled with a felon linked to local clans

THE AGREEMENTS
The agreements, according to the investigators, would have been born in the Lanciano prison, where the inmates managed to get cell phones and telephone cards in and where the bond was born between Umberto Bellocco, known as “Chiacchiera”, and Ramy Serour, arrested in January 2018 as belonging to the Spada clan. An important friendship that also guaranteed Serour privileges within the institution: «The truth bro’ – he says to his brother not knowing he’s being intercepted – the truth, today I was invited to a table, we were seventeen people, all … the ‘Ndrangheta!».

Gioacchino Bonarrigo, 38, was the one to lead the negotiations with the Roman clan for the cocaine matches, also arrested in yesterday’s operation. A former fugitive arrested in 2017 in Amsterdam, Bonarrigo allegedly went to Ostia several times to meet members of the Spada and supply them with drugs imported from Amsterdam. While Serour would have taken care through his wife, of guaranteeing the delivery of mobile phones to the detained boss. The woman allegedly handed them over to another prisoner who, taking advantage of her semi-freedom, brought them inside.

Rome, Casamonica, the judges of the appeal process confirm: “It is a mafia association”


Thanks to his criminal depth, Bellocco would have made use of some prisoners who enjoyed the semi-liberty regime to stock up on mobile phones. “But above all – reads the ordinance – he established relationships with members of various criminal associations, such as Ramy Serour, a member of the Spada di Ostia clan, who was also involved in the procurement of telephone sets. Through these tools of communication with the outside world, Bellocco was made aware of all the most important events of its criminal operations, he was informed of initiatives in some specific sectors – this is still the content of the provision -, such as that of extortion attributable to the mechanism of the so-called guardianships, giving specific provisions and settling the issues that gradually arose, in particular by intervening personally where necessary to settle disputes with representatives of other branches of the association, with whom he also spoke personally through the aforementioned utilities telephones”.

On 26 September 2019, Ramy Serour tells Maximimino Soto Rojas about prison life and customs inside the Lanciano penitentiary. Soto Rojas, intrigued by the circumstance, asked Serour who was in charge inside the prison, clearly alluding to the criminal hierarchies capable of imposing themselves within the penitentiary. «Bro, that friend of mine I told you about», and the other replies «ah, Umbertino». At that point, his friend asks him to intervene and he undertakes to ask for Bellocco’s intervention: «I understand. Now I’ll see if I can tomorrow, now I’m talking to this friend of mine, I’ll see if he can send us someone». The knot concerned some Calabrians with interests on the coast who had carried out criminal actions with the clear purpose of intimidating local cliques. “We have the problem with your friend’s friend who is in there … Umberto’s friend there”, the same ones who had carried out criminal actions with the clear purpose of intimidating local consortia . And in the end it’s enough to mention the name: «When I told him the name of your friend, brother, I tell you he was putting on, no white, more! He said to me: “Do you really know him?”. I told him: why not? He was right in the cell with my partner. They are like brothers.”

DRUG
According to the reconstruction, the negotiation to manage the drug consignment takes place through Gioacchino Bonarrigo and the members of the “Spada” clan. “Francesco Palaia – reads the ordinance – explained to Bellocco how the relations between the two gangs were good and that in the past they had already “favored” them in carrying out other illegal activities”. “The organization of the operation began following the release of Gioacchino Bonarrigo – writes the investigating judge – a subject linked to the team directed by Bellocco who was recognized as having undoubted managerial skills in the drug sector”.

The ‘Ndrangheta’s truck carrying nine hundred kilos of hashish was also lost in the Genoa bridge collapse

The Calabrian mafia, the ‘Ndrangheta, has been searching for a truck lost during the 2018 Genoa bridge crash for years, the Calabrian prosecutor’s office announced on Wednesday evening. When the Morandi Bridge collapsed, many vehicles, including a yellow refrigerator truck that can be clearly seen in the footage recording the collapse of the bridge, also fell into the depths. Its wreckage, together with the wreckage of the other vehicles that fell into the abyss, was transported to an official scrap yard in Genoa.

The Morandi Bridge collapsed on August 14, 2018 in Genoa. At least thirty people lost their lives in the tragedy. Among the vehicles that fell into the abyss was a yellow refrigerated truck in which the Calabrian mafia hid 900 kilos of hashish.

Back in 2020, Calabrian prosecutors intercepted a telephone conversation in which a boss of the ‘Ndrangheta ordered one of his men to recover the vehicle, in the wall of which nine hundred kilos of hashish were hidden.

The prosecutor’s office has only now made the intercepted conversation public because it was intercepted during an undercover operation, as a result of which only 63 members of the ‘Ndrangheta were detained on Tuesday.

It was also revealed from the intercepted conversation that they wanted to transport the van from the authority premises through a car wrecking company. The mafia also waited for the authorities to transfer the vehicle from Genoa to Latina, near Rome, and from there to a site in Frosinone, as it was thus closer to the area of ??organized crime in southern Italy. Palaia also warned his man to be careful when transporting the van, because the vehicle was badly damaged and the drug could fall out of it while moving it.

According to Italian press reports, the truck was lost anyway, so the mafia may have succeeded. The story of the rise of the ‘Ndrangheta and its transformation into a global criminal organization was elaborated in a readable way by journalist Antonio Talia in his book A 106, which we published in Hungarian this year and which you can now buy at a discount in our webshop at our Christmas market.

Bruzzese murder, trial underway for two Calabrian defendants
Local about 12 hours ago REPORT

The brother of the pentito Girolamo Biagio Bruzzese was killed in Pesaro on Christmas evening 2018. The process with abbreviated rite is underway. In the dock Michelangelo Tripodi of Vibo and Francesco Candiloro of Polistena

ANCONA – The abbreviated trial for the two alleged hitmen in the murder of Marcello Bruzzese, brother of the justice collaborator Girolamo Biagio Bruzzese, which took place on the evening of 25 December 2018, in Pesaro.

Only two of the three accused had asked and obtained to proceed with an alternative rite: abbreviated dry for Michelangelo Tripodi, 44, of Vibo Valentia, and abbreviated conditional on an eye examination for Francesco Candiloro, 43, of Polistena (Reggio Calabria).

Today his lawyer presented an expert report that would certify a visual disturbance. Both, connected via video with the Court of Ancona, from the prisons where they are imprisoned, Tripodi and Candiloro are considered the material perpetrators of the murder.

The investigations were conducted by the Ros of Ancona, led by Major Francesco D’Ecclesiis. Today the discussion, in front of the investigating judge Francesca De Palma, lasted all afternoon, without going so far as to formulate the requests for condemnation. After Guibinelli, in fact, it will be the turn of other prosecutors.

It was the district anti-mafia prosecutor’s office of Ancona, with the chief prosecutor Monica Garulli and the prosecutors Gubinelli and Daniele Paci, who had requested the trial for all three alleged perpetrators of the Natale crime.

The next hearing is scheduled for February and on that date the conviction requests could be reached. The third accused is Rocco Versace, 55, from Taurianova (Reggio Calabria), who allegedly helped the ‘Ndrangheta plan the murder. The ordinary trial in the Court of Assizes in Pesaro began yesterday for him.

Precautionary custody in prison for boss Vincenzo Alvaro has been confirmed by the Cassation .
The judges of the second criminal section of the Supreme Court, as reported by Adnkronos, have rejected the appeal presented by the Alvaro defense against the decision of the Rome Review last June on the pre-trial detention ordered in the context of the maxi "Propaggine" investigation of the District Directorate Antimafia of Rome and Dia against the first official "locale" 'Ndrangheta in the capital which led to the arrest of about forty people, including Antonio Carzo.
According to the investigations, coordinated by the deputy prosecutors Michele Prestipino and Ilaria Calò and the prosecutors Giovanni Musarò, Francesco Minisci and Stefano Luciani, the heads of the 'ndrina in Rome were Alvaro and Carzo : Carzo himself in the summer of 2015 had received from the parent company from the 'Ndrangheta the authorization to set up a club in the capital. "We in Rome are an offshoot down there," they said in an intercepted phone call.

A big police operation underway in Rocca di Neto, Crotone, many arrests also in the USA by the FBI.

Extortion in Manhattan, weapons and drug trafficking: 18 arrests on the Rocca di Neto-USA axis
VIDEOS | The investigation was born on input from the FBI in New York. More than two hundred policemen coordinated by the Dda of Catanzaro were on the field

of editorial staff December 19, 2022 10:22

A total of 18 people have been arrested as part of the operation coordinated by the DDA of Catanzaro. Among the alleged crimes, for various reasons, mafia-type association, association aimed at the purchase, possession, transport, transfer and sale of narcotic substances such as cocaine, hashish and marijuana, extortion aggravated by the mafia method as well as port and illegal possession of weapons and ammunition aggravated by the mafia method.

The investigations
The arrests are the consequence of what emerged during an articulated investigation that began in March 2020, launched with information input from the Federal bureau of investigation of New York , regarding alleged extortion episodes committed in the Manhattan area , and carried out by policemen of the Central Operations Service, of the Mobile Squads of Crotone and Catanzaro, who allegedly demonstrated the operation of the alleged Corigliano-Comito clan in the Rocca di Neto area. The latter would have been endowed with territorial control capacity and internal hierarchies, hand in glove with the Belvedere Spinello venue, with projections in the United States of America where, concurrently with the Italian activities, FBI personnel together with that of the State Police, carried out several searches against subjects under investigation in a related criminal proceeding.

^^^^
More articles on this investigation:

Crotone. La “mazzetta” si ordinava al bar: blitz fino in Usa, scacco alla cosca Corigliano-Comito
http://www.cn24tv.it/news/243335/ndrangheta-arresti-cosca-corigliano-comito-rocca-di-neto.html
(this article lists the arrestees)

Estorsioni e traffico di droga aggravati dal metodo mafioso. Gli affari dei Corigliano-Comito tra Rocca di Neto e New York – NOMI e VIDEO
https://www.corrieredellacalabria.i...a-rocca-di-neto-e-new-york-nomi-e-video/
(this article lists the arrestees)

Operazione contro la ‘Ndrangheta nel Crotonese: in azione anche l’Fbi, 18 arresti
https://www.agenzianova.com/news/op...otonese-in-azione-anche-lfbi-18-arresti/
(link to English version, which shows hallmarks of Google Translate: https://www.agenzianova.com/en/news...otonese-in-azione-anche-lfbi-18-arresti/)

'Ndrangheta, le mani su New York dei Corigliano-Comito: 18 arresti
https://www.adnkronos.com/ndranghet...comito-18-arresti_4D3keioD4OZ2btsHGqp4bc

No mention of the bust in New York media?

'Ndrangheta tentacles stretch to Manhattan
Calabrian Mob ran protection, drugs rackets in New York

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 20 - The tentacles of Italy's richest and most multinational crime group, Calabria's 'Ndrangheta, have now stretched to Manhattan, Italian prosecutors said this week.
Some 18 alleged members of the Calabrian Mob, which controls much of the European cocaine trade, were arrested Monday on suspicion of running protection rackets and supplying cocaine to "important milieux" in the Big Apple, prosecutors said.
The organization was based at Rocca di Neto near Crotone in southern Calabria, police said.
During the course of the Italo-American police operation, sources said, the FBI carried out searches and raids in New York.
Those arrested are Italo-Americans who have lived in New York for many years, police said.
The Corigliano-Comito group and the "locale" (branch) of Belvedere Spinello ran the protection and drugs rackets, police said.
Police said the New York arrests completed a police round up of over 200 'Ndrangheta members across Italy, in Milan, Rome, Naples, Brescia, Salerno, Perugia, Latina, Reggio Calabria, Catania, Trapani and Catanzaro.
'Ndrangheta has spread from its Calabrian heartlands to the rest of Italy, Europe and around the world, and is considered Italy's richest and most powerful mafia due to its control of much of the European cocaine trade from South America.
'Ndrangheta (from a Greek word meaning 'heroism' or 'virtue') once lived in the twin shadow of Cosa Nostra in Sicily and the Camorra in Naples.
While those two syndicates, notably the Sicilians, were feeding off the transatlantic heroin trade through operations like the infamous 'French connection', 'Ndrangheta was only just emerging from its traditional stock-in-trade of kidnappings in the Calabrian highlands.
It has since become a highly sophisticated global network with a chokehold on the international drugs trade and control over swathes of its home turf where police fear to tread, Italian officials say. (ANSA).

That the ‘Ndrangheta is always ready to diversify its business is known. Now comes the confirmation that organized crime also gets its hands on the most popular sport of the moment: padel.

Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate arrested Marco Molluso a local football coach and the nephew of two bosses.
The Molluso gang is originally from Plati in the province of Reggio Calabria, and has been active for years now in Buccinasco a small town a few steps from Milan which has long since become the northern outpost of the Calabrian clans.

Molluso “had participated in the creation of eight padel courts worth approx 700 thousand euros inside a Sports Center and assigned in concession to an amateur club in Milan”. The plants in question, in the neighborhood Barona were seized, resulting among other things “illegally built and without any prior authorization from the competent offices”.

'Ndrangheta: Cassation annuls the arrest of the mayor of Cosoleto
23 December 2022
The Court of Cassation canceled with postponement the precautionary custody order issued last May by the investigating judge Angela Mennella against the former mayor of Cosoleto Antonino Gioffré , accused by the Reggio Calabria Dda of political-mafia electoral exchange. The lawyers Fortunato Schiava and Carlo Morace gave the news in a press releasewho express their "satisfaction with the decision of the Sixth Section of the Supreme Court". The former mayor Gioffré had been arrested as part of the "Propaggine" investigation conducted against the Alvaro-Penna clan which led, in November, to the dissolution of the Municipality for mafia infiltrations. In Cosoleto, in fact, according to the magistrates "the local elections of June 2018 were heavily conditioned by the Alvaro gang in agreement with the outgoing mayor Antonino Gioffrè, then candidate and elected again". The prosecution was challenged by the lawyers Schiava and Morace according to which "the decision of the Cassation calls into question the circumstantial gravity and the configurability of the crime ascribed to Gioffrè,

The Police Chief of Imperia, Giuseppe Felice Peritore, has forbidden the public form for the funeral of Benito Pepè, 86, a resident of Bordighera, sentenced in recent years to six years for criminal association of the Mafia type as he was believed to have taken part in the 'locale' of 'ndrangheta present in western Liguria.
Pepè's body will be transported from the hospital of the capital directly to the cemetery of the city of palms where it will take place the rite and immediately after the burial in the presence of only the closest family members.
The 86-year-old was under house arrest, for health reasons, as he was serving a 6-year sentence for mafia association remedied following the outcome of the trial resulting from the 'Maglio 3' investigation. Acquitted in 1st degree and on appeal, the Cassation had then ordered a new 2nd degree trial.

Last week the historic boss of the ‘Ndrangheta in Lombardy, Bartolomeo Iaconis was sentenced to 11 years and 8 months in the maxi trial there were 34 sentences for over 200 years. And with the sentences also, the first in Milan, according to reports, for two women recognized as members of the mafia association. Elisabetta Rusconi and Carmela Consagra were sentenced to 7 years and 8 months for mafia association,

Interesting article about how the 'ndrangheta controls the "ghetto" in Pioltello (near Milan).

https://www.corrieredellacalabria.i...gheta-a-pioltello-provincia-di-caulonia/

Cosimo Maiolo, Alessandro Manno e Domenico Pio

A year of news in Reggio, from the extradition of Rocco Morabito to important arrests of the 'Ndrangheta
Dario Rondinella |Saturday 31 December 2022 - 18:05
The numerous arrests of important members of the 'Ndrangheta, the extradition of the boss Rocco Morabito, among the most important news stories of 2022

From the seizures of several tens of millions of euros, to numerous arrests that have made it possible to dismantle important 'Ndrangheta families, to dozens of landings of clandestine migrants up to the extradition from Uruguay of Rocco Morabito known as "Il Tamunga", which took place in of July, one of the most important drug traffickers of the 'Ndrangheta. These are the news stories that characterized Reggio in 2022.

THE MAIN NEWS EVENTS MONTH BY MONTH

https://www.tempostretto.it/news/un...ad-importanti-arresti-di-ndrangheta.html

The mysterious death of Amadeo Matacena, super fugitive between politics and 'Ndrangheta

Next June he would be free after ten years on the run. An unexpected illness killed him in Dubai a few hours after his birthday party. Sons and brother blocked the cremation requested by the widow, executor of the will. And the Reggio prosecutor's office opens an investigation

by Gianfrancesco Turano

04 JANUARY 2023

Amedeo Gennaro Raniero Matacena, shipowner and politician, died in Dubai on 16 September 2022 a few hours after celebrating his fifty-ninth birthday together with his last partner, Maria Pia Tropepi, 41, also born on 15 September and married to Amedeo second news that appeared last August.

At the time of his sudden and unexpected death, Matacena had been on the run for nine years and three months.