REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, ROME -- Italian police arrested 29 people on Tuesday in a major operation against 'Ndrangheta, the crime syndicate based in the Southern region of Calabria.
The operation targeted two powerful mafia clans, the Commisso and Aquino crime families, operating in the southeastern part of Calabria's coastal region.
Antonio Macri, a local right-wing politician and former president of Siderno city council, was among those arrested. The small town of Siderno had already seen its municipality dissolved by the government on suspicion of mafia infiltration in March 2013.
Those arrested were variously charged with mafia association, auctions' infiltration, and firearm-related crimes.
Some were also indicted of international mafia association, since the Commisso clan especially would also operate abroad as an organized crime group, mainly in connection with Canada.
According to Italy's anti-mafia investigative Department (DIA) prosecutors, the two clans were involved in "high-level extortion activities, and systematic infiltration of public contracts."
Two of the affected construction projects were related to a school and a dam.
The two families had put most of the local business under their control, anti-mafia prosecutors added, charging all firms working in public contracts a 3 percent of their earnings for each tender they would win.
Tuesday's operation was carried out by police flying squad officers in connection with the Central Investigative Service (SCO) in Rome.
These latest arrests were the continuation of a 2010 probe called "Crime," which had brought some 300 people from Calabria and from Italy's business capital city, Milan, in jail, prosecutors said.
Calabria-based 'Ndrangheta is believed to be the most powerful among Italy's three mafia organizations now, and much richer than Cosa Nostra mob from Sicily or Camorra from Naples, thanks to its growing activities in international drug trafficking, extortion, and money-laundering.
According to a study by Demoskopica research institute, ' Ndrangheta had an annual turnover of around 53 billion euros (68 billion U.S. dollars) last year, equal to 3.5 percent of Italy's gross domestic product.
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