'Ndrangheta, closed the investigation of the Ionian gangs in Belgium, Holland and Germany
2 September 2019

By Vincenzo Imperitura

There were the cosche of San Luca (the Romeo and the Pelle-Vottari), those of Natile and those of Gioiosa (the Ursino): for years, blending with the mass migration that has always linked the southern coast of Reggio to northern Europe, they had settled between Holland, Belgium and the inevitable Germany, recreating the same dynamics of the "mother house" in Calabria, thousands of miles from home. A solid and well-branched network that had been discovered by the anti-mafia district of Reggio Calabria thanks to a long investigation carried out by police men in collaboration with colleagues from Belgium, Holland and Germany since 2016.

Now, a little less than a year after the maxi operation, the Strait district closed its investigations against sixty suspects who have to respond, in various ways, to mafia association, international drug trafficking and money laundering. According to investigators, the group was able to exploit the connections with the world of the central and southern American narcos to flood the Europe of cocaine that came from "friendly ports" in northern Europe. The settlement of the clans in the heart of the industrious northern Europe was made possible by the mountain of money coming from the illicit trafficking that was reinvested to infiltrate the clean economy (mainly, the restaurant sector) thanks to a series of compliant nominees. And if restaurants served to launder money, in the same way, investigators say, those same premises were used as logistic bases where to stow drugs waiting to be sold throughout Europe. An imposing organization that moved like a real holding company, capable of using foreign groups for the work of modifying the means with which to transport cocaine and Italian criminal groups linked to the Camorra and to cosa nostra to place it.

Calabria Editorial 7

https://calabria7.it/ndrangheta-chiuse-le-indagini-sulle-cosche-joniche-in-belgio-olanda-e-germania/