Dawn raids on Calabrian mafia net €150m haul

ITALY: POLICE IN Calabria, southern Italy, struck an important blow against the local mafia, the 'Ndrangheta yesterday when more than €150 million worth of goods were seized in dawn raids on known mafia hideouts.

More than 100 heavily-armed policemen, using helicopter backup, were involved in a wide-ranging operation across Calabria.

Although the crackdown hit well-known mafia strongholds such as Locri, the investigators attached most importance to the raids carried out in little San Luca.

San Luca is the village which made unwelcome international headlines last August when six Italians were shot dead in a mafia-style execution outside a restaurant in the German town of Duisburg. It later emerged that the killings were the latest episode in a feud involving two 'Ndrangheta families from San Luca, namely the Nirta-Strangio and Pelle-Vottari families.

The feud originated with an eggthrowing incident during the Carnevale celebrations of 1991 in the village, an incident that was prompted by arguments about splitting the proceeds of kidnapping - for long a cottage industry in Calabria.

Investigators say that since then the conflict has focused on control of both the local drug trafficking trade and of public works contracts.

Among the goods seized were shops, small businesses, houses, land, insurance policies and luxury cars, much of which was controlled by the Nirta-Strangio and Pelle-Vottari families.

Furthermore, during the raid in San Luca, police discovered a hideout in a house used by relatives of Antonio Pelle, otherwise known as "Ntoni Gambazza", a godfather who is on the run from a 26-year prison sentence. Investigators claim that the hideout had recently been used, perhaps by "Gambazza".

Commenting on the significance of the raids, Nicola Gratteri, a senior investigator said: "Raids like these are very important not just because that they hurt the 'Ndrangheta economically, but above all because they make them seem less all-powerful in the eyes of ordinary people . . . If their [ 'Ndrangheta] consent and prestige are reduced by the sequester of their goods then that is in fact much more important than the sequester and the raids themselves."

The raids were the latest in a series of aggressive police operations since last summer, actions which have seen more than 40 alleged 'Ndrangheta members arrested.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times