MOSCOW, January 28 (Sputnik) — Over 160 people were arrested Wednesday in a large-scale operation against the 'Ndrangheta mafia in northern Italy, Gazzetta del Sud reported Wednesday.
The 'Ndrangheta mafia is currently the most powerful crime syndicate in Italy having been credited with controlling the European cocaine trade since late 1990.
"I can't recall an intervention of this type to combat a strong and monolithic criminal organization, deeply infiltrated," National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor Franco Roberti was quoted as saying by Gazzetta del Sud.
22 January 2015, 11:56 GMT
Underpinning the outcomes of the operation, Roberti emphasized that it was "imposing and decisive in the fight against the mafia in the north," according to the Italian newspaper.
Over 40 arrests were made in Calabria, the birthplace of the criminal organization, and 117 detentions took place in the Emilia-Romagna region, according to local media reports.
Italian law enforcement authorities conducted the operation, code-named Aemilia, simultaneously in six regions: Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy, Piedmont, Veneto, Calabria and Sicily.
