dpa
Rome
Italian police arrested 55 people suspected of having links to the Sicilian mafia in a crackdown on organized crime.
The suspects are accused of extortion, drug trafficking and possession of weapons and explosives, Italian police said on Tuesday. The raids took place mainly around the Sicilian town of Caltanissetta, but also in other parts of Italy.
Around 500 officers were involved in the large-scale operation. “Today’s operation is of particular importance not only in terms of quantity, but also in terms of quality,” Salvatore De Luca from the public prosecutor’s office in Caltanissetta told journalists.
The Cosa Nostra is the most well-known and active mafia organization on the Italian Mediterranean island. There are also smaller criminal organizations such as Stidda.
The focus of the operation was on the town of Gela in Sicily. There, two large mafia families had formed an alliance with Stidda to organize the drug business. The families are said to have used illegally obtained money to build several greenhouses for cannabis cultivation.
