May 05 2008
Twenty arrested in anti-Mafia raid
Avellino — Italian paramilitary police on Monday arrested 20 people as part of a major probe of Mafia activity in the province of Avellino in the southern Campania region.
Three hundred policemen, sniffer dogs and a helicopter were deployed in the operation which went ahead after arrest warrants were signed by the investigating magistrate in Avellino, Francesco Todisco, reported the Italian daily La Repubblica.
The 20 people arrested are believed to be heads and members of the local Graziano crime family.
They are accused of Mafia association aimed at extortion, possession of illegal weapons, defrauding the Italian state and interference in the 2005 local elections in Quindici, Avellino, among other offences.
A two-year investigation began after several local businessmen were targeted by extortionists. Some of the extortionists’ alleged victims were reportedly taken to the high-security villa of Graziano boss Felice Graziano, where he pressured them to pay out.
Graziano was arrested last year in a earlier police raid in connection with the probe. The Grazianos have for the past 40 years been locked in a bloody feud with the rival Cava crime family in which scores of people have died.
Twenty arrested in anti-Mafia raid - AKI - 5 May 08 - http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.2133980082
