ROME: Italian anti-mafia police said they busted an international drug ring and arrested 54 people with ties to notorious mafia group ‘Ndrangheta attempting to smuggle cocaine with a street value of $1.7 billion into Europe. While the ‘Ndrangheta is based in the southern Calabria region, the 54 people arrested were detained in different parts of Italy, the country’s authorities said, according to Reuters.
The group was allegedly conspiring to import about 8 metric tons, or 17,637 pounds, of cocaine from Colombia into Europe via seaports and airports in Calabria, which is at the southern tip of the Italian mainland.
The drug haul was intercepted at a plantation in Colombia, near the Caribbean port of Turbo. Italian newspaper La Repubblica called it “the largest drug seizure in Italian history of combatting drug trafficking.”
A “test run” of 139 pounds of cocaine was found hidden in a load of bananas in the port of Livorno, in central Italy, according to Italian police.
The ‘Ndrangheta is highly active in the drug trade, and the group has extensive links to criminal groups and drug traffickers in Latin America.
