Aug 30 2007
Italy Cracks Down on Mafia Clans
ROME - Scores of suspects were being arrested in a crackdown on organized crime clans whose feud is believed to have led to the shooting deaths of six Italians in Germany this month, Italian police said Thursday.
Police said they were carrying out as many as 40 arrest warrants, mostly in San Luca, the tiny Calabrian town where the two rival clans of the ‘ndrangheta, the Calabrian version of the Sicilian Mafia, are based.
The arrests were the result of a long-standing investigation that started before the Aug. 15 slayings in Germany, police said in a statement. German and Italian authorities were conducting a separate probe to find the killers of the six men, who were aged 16 to 38 and killed in Duisburg, police said.
“The operation is still under way. Scores have already been picked up, and searches are being carried out,” Renato Cortese, a top police official in the regional capital of Reggio Calabria, told Sky TG24 news channel.
The ANSA news agency said charges included mafia association, murder and arms trafficking. Those being sought included brothers of two of the victims in Germany as well top clan bosses, police said.
Though most of the arrests were being carried out in San Luca, Cortese said some suspects were also being sought in Rome and a nearby town.
Italy Cracks Down on Mafia Clans - The Associated Press - Thursday, August 30, 2007; 4:27 AM - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/30/AR2007083000218.html
