Italian police have taken into custody 61 more people who they think are members of the ‘Ndrangheta mafia group.
They were charged with doing bad things like cheating, selling drugs, taking over the government, and forcing farmers to give them money.
Over 500 police officers are doing attacks on 167 people as part of a bigger effort to stop a group of criminals.
Last week, the police arrested over 100 people in 10 countries. They called their action “Operation Eureka” and said it was the biggest one yet against this organization.
Assets worth £22million (25 million euros) were seized in Italy, Germany, Portugal and France.
Carabinieri said arrest warrants were served on 108 people, who were accused of mafia association, possession, production, and trafficking of drugs and weapons, money laundering, and other crimes.
In its latest six-monthly report, Italy’s Anti-Mafia Investigative Directorate (DIA) calls the ‘Ndrangheta ‘the absolute dominant force in the criminal world’ well beyond its home turf of Calabria.
In 2008, Italian research group Eurispes valued the mafia group’s annual turnover at a staggering £38billion (44 billion euros), roughly 3% of Italy’s gross domestic product at the time.
The estimate has since been disputed by some experts, but most agree that the Calabrian mob is extremely powerful and wealthy, largely thanks to its role as a major smuggler of cocaine from Latin America to Europe.
According to Europol, the crime group was devoted primarily to international drug trafficking from South America to both Europe and Australia.
The network used Chinese money brokers in Italy and Colombia to arrange for funds to be moved to pay for drug deals, Italian police commander Massimiliano D’Angelantonio told a news conference.
‘Ndrangheta clans were also involved in running weapons from Pakistan to South America, supplying a Brazilian criminal group in exchange for cocaine shipments, Europol added.
European authorities have been waging a campaign against the group in recent years.
Officials have estimated ‘Eureka’ had resulted in the seizure of 23 tons of cocaine over years of investigation, which deprived the ’ndrangheta of some £2.1billion (2.5 billion euros) in drug revenue.
Margaritis Schinas, vice president of the EU’s executive commission, said the operation ‘delivered a lightning strike’ against the crime gang.