Nigerian mafia: 70 arrests between Turin and Ferrara, among the bosses an afro-beat deejay

New blow to the Nigerian mafia, with two parallel operations between Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna and over seventy custody measures that have dismantled the 'cult', as the criminal groups are called, 'Vikings-Arobaga' in Ferrara and 'Valhalla Marine' in Turin.

The two organizations, according to police investigators, were closely connected, with strong dependence on the parent company in Nigeria and joints in other Italian provinces, in particular in Veneto (Padua, Treviso and Venice) but also in Lombardy. Among the main characteristics of the groups, which led to the accusation of the crime of mafia association for many of the suspects, the marked hierarchies, the pyramid structure, the constraints of subjugation, the ability to intimidate, the obligation of secrecy and to speak in code, the tribal rites of affiliation, the duty to periodically pay sums and the will to prevail over the other brotherhoods of compatriots for the control of the territory.

They controlled and managed the street trade in drugs and the exploitation of prostitution of Nigerian women in various areas.