They allegedly belong to the ‘Ndrangheta’s Passafaro-Cossari and Falcone crime families.
The businesses allegedly targeted by the suspects were mainly building firms and shopkeepers in the area around Catanzaro.
Thursday’s arrests follow an investigation that began in 2003 and 2004 into an underworld dispute that included several murders and the setting alight of property including bulldozers and diggers owned by local construction firms.
The Italian government has vowed to clamp down on the mafia and this year has seen the arrests of scores of suspects including a number of alleged mafia bosses as well as the seizure of millions of euros of assets by police.
As recently as Monday, police in the northern Italian city of Lecco on Monday arrested 20 ‘Ndrangheta suspects allegedly operating in the surrounding Lombardy region. The suspects allegedly belonged to a gang involved in embezzlement, drugs trafficking and other unspecified crimes.
The assets were seized on the orders of magistrates in the city of Cosenza.
The Calabrian mafia or ‘Ndrangheta has become one of the most powerful criminal organisations in Italy and is reported to have extended its power base through the European drug trafficking market. It also has strong links in Canada, Australia and other parts of the world.
