132 ‘Ndrangheta arrested in Belgium, Italy and Germany

Executed by 10 countries, 132 members of one of the world’s most powerful criminal networks have been taken into custody. In the early morning hours cops in Belgium, Germany, Italy, France, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Romania, Brazil and Panama raided multiple locations and seized several companies. Over 2,770 officers were involved. ‘Ndrangheta families are based mainly in the town of San Luca in the Italian province of Reggio Calabria. Families have been involved in decades-long clan violence known as the San Luca feud. Shootings in Italy and abroad, such as the Duisburg massacre in Germany in 2007 were a result. Two of those busted had been on the EU Most Wanted list.

Cops found that the network was working with the Colombian cartel Gulf Clan and an Albanian crime group operating in Ecuador and multiple European Countries. ‘Ndrangheta were also involved in international firearms trafficking from Pakistan to South America, providing weapons to the PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital) in exchange for cocaine.