Italian and German police on Tuesday
arrested a total of 29 people in the two countries accused of
belonging to or helping the Calabria-based 'Ndrangheta mafia,
Italy's richest and most powerful criminal organisation.
Some 20 people including lawyers and accountants were arrested
in Italy and the other nine in the German land of
Baden-Württemberg.
The arrests in Germany included a police office suspected of
passing information to the 'Ndrangheta organisation.
The investigations codenamed Boreas were conducted, explained
the Public Prosecutor of Catanzaro, Salvatore Curcio, "thanks to
the collaboration with the Stuttgart Prosecutor's Office and the
German police.
"A collaboration that dates back to 1993, when there was the
first 'Ndrangheta informer in German territory, Vincenzo
Cavallaro, whose statements were later joined by those of
another informer, Rocco Covello.
"It has been over 30 years, therefore, that the presence of the
'ndrangheta in Germany has been certified".
The "Boreas" investigation revealed, in particular, extortion
committed in Italy and Germany, "so much so as to make this
specific crime - Curcio added - weigh heavily on the aggravating
circumstance of transactional nature".
The victims of this specific crime were above all Calabrian
traders resident in Germany.
"Furthermore," said the deputy prosecutor, Vincenzo Capomolla,
"the clans availed themselves of the complicity of professionals
who operated through fictitious ownership of assets.
"The same clans had managed to control the economic activities
of a large portion of German territory thanks to the use of
'figureheads' to whom the companies were registered, which in
reality could be traced back to the members of the clans."
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