A huge police operation targeted members of Italy’s powerful ‘Ndrangheta Mafia’ in Germany and in several other European countries on Wednesday.
In Germany alone, more than 1,000 police officers took part in the raids.
Authorities in Italy, France, Spain, Belgium and Portugal were simultaneously conducting raids as part of the joint operation coordinated by Europol and Eurojust at the request of anti-Mafia prosecutors in Italy.
Italian police said that a total of 108 arrest warrants were executed as part of the international operation, the vast majority in Italy.
The ‘Ndrangheta’, based in Calabria in southern Italy, is seen as one of the largest and most powerful crime syndicates in Europe.
There were prosecutors in the German cities of Düsseldorf, Koblenz, Saarbrücken and Munich as well as criminal investigation offices in the states of Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate.
Saarland said this in a joint press statement released across Europe.
About half of the German officers deployed were in action in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate.
About 100 properties were searched, including homes, flats, offices and other business premises in the two western states.
In Saarland, a residential house and business premises of a 47-year-old man were searched in Saarbrücken, as well as premises rented by the man in Saarlouis.
The man himself was arrested in Italy.
Another wanted man from Saarland was also arrested in Italy.
The interior minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Michael Ebling, described the operation as an “effective blow’’ against the Mafia.
“A clear signal has been sent today: There is no place in Europe for organised crime,’’ he said.
Those targeted were the accused, among other things, like money laundering, tax evasion, fraud and drug smuggling. (dpa/NAN)