Wire taps from an investigation into the Calabrian mafia revealed that they have been converting cocaine into “coal” to avoid detection when importing the product from Colombia.

The investigation came to a head this week with the arrest of 65 people, the identification of a dozen local politicians in Anzio and Nettuno believed to serve the Calabrian clans, and the arrest of two policemen. A chemist hired to convert the fake coal back into the usual white cocaine powder was identified as a Colombian nicknamed “Parkinson”, with the alleged traffickers boasting in one of the intercepted conversations that he was “two steps ahead of everyone else”.