The ‘Ndrangheta has once again shown that it is the Italian mafia with the most international ramifications, as well as one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the world, as has become clear after this Wednesday’s major operation, which led to the issuance of 108 arrest warrants against alleged criminals who were in several transalpine cities and eight European countries, including Spain, Belgium, Germany and France. Many of them have already served previous convictions, but are now charged with membership of a mafia association and international trafficking in drugs and weapons of war, among other crimes. They would also have committed various financial crimes. The profits from their criminal activities were reinvested in supposedly legal companies in Germany, Portugal, Belgium and Argentina. This international police operation, called ‘Eureka’, in which thousands of officers took part, allowed the seizure of three tons of cocaine with which to kill some of the most important clans of the ‘Ndrangheta, such as the Nirta-Strangio and the Morabito. The investigation started from the investigations in 2019 by the Belgian police into some members of that first group who were active in the city of Genk, where they launder black money in real estate matters and matters related to restaurants and tourism. Drugs in exchange for weapons The collaboration between the Carabinieri and Belgian agents has allowed the development of this operation, the most important to date in this northern European country, after leading to the arrest in Brazil of Rocco Morabito, aka, in 2021 ‘Tamunga’. He was one of the most powerful bosses of the ‘Ndrangheta and was then wanted by the Italian authorities. According to investigators, Morabito would have tried to buy a large shipment of drugs from a Brazilian mafia group in exchange for a container of weapons of war from countries of the former Soviet Union. The operation, coordinated by the Italian National Anti-Mafia Directorate, also made it possible to dismantle the extensive international network that these ‘Ndrangheta clans had, related to criminal groups in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Albania, and with the capacity to their shipments of drugs to Australia. The profits he made from his criminal activities were reinvested in supposedly legal companies in Germany, Portugal, Belgium and Argentina. To do this, they used a series of front companies. It is estimated that they managed to move more than 22 million euros in this way.
Source: La Verdad
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