A major European police operation targeting the feared ‘Ndrangheta group from Calabria led to the arrest of 132 people, searches and the seizure of assets in ten countries, including Italy, Germany, France and Romania, on Wednesday, AFP and Deutsche Welle reported. . The investigation into the case began about four years ago, and authorities managed to intercept the mafia after the pandemic and travel restrictions forced members of the group to talk on the phone. Until now, Ndrangheta had completely avoided telephone conversations, preferring to travel hundreds of kilometers for meetings.

In Italy, carabinieri arrested 108 people suspected of involvement in the group, and in Germany, more than 1,000 officers raided dozens of homes, offices and shops in several states, arresting more than 20 people. According to the Italian prosecutor’s office, companies and assets worth 25 million euros were also confiscated.

More than 2,700 police officers have been mobilized for this operation, which began on Wednesday, including 1,400 in Italy alone. About a hundred searches were conducted in Germany, according to the authorities of the states of Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland.

Bavaria’s interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, called the operation “a significant blow to the ‘Ndrangheta, which is considered Italy’s richest and most powerful mafia, with branches in around 40 countries.

According to Europol, the European Union agency for law enforcement cooperation, this is “the strongest blow to the Italian criminal organization.”

Dubbed Operation Eureka, police raids also took place in France, Romania, Portugal, Slovenia and Belgium, as well as in Brazil and Panama.

The ‘Ndrangheta dominates the cocaine market in Europe

Investigators say Ndrangheta dominates the cocaine market in Europe, where she is also involved in money laundering, corruption and violence.

The investigation also confirmed the existence of important drug flows between South America and Europe, which are managed, in particular, by the San Luca clan from Calabria under the heel of the “Italian boot”.

The families at the helm of this criminal network have also engaged in decades of violence to contest this highly lucrative market, violence that culminated in the 2007 massacre in Duisburg, Germany. Then the bodies of six Italians between the ages of 16 and 39 and members of one of the two San Luca clans were found riddled with bullets in two cars in front of the Italian restaurant “Da Bruno” in Duisburg, western Germany.

Following an investigation launched at the European level almost four years ago, authorities in Italy and Belgium accused the ‘Ndrangheta of importing and trafficking almost 25 tonnes of cocaine between October 2019 and January 2022.

South American cocaine transits through the ports of Gioia Tauro (Calabria) and Antwerp (Belgium), as well as through other ports in Germany, Spain and the Netherlands (Rotterdam) thanks to deals made by the Ndrangheta with the Colombian criminal organization Clan del Golfo and another Albanian criminal group that operated in Ecuador and Europe.

Investigators also discovered an offer to supply the Brazilian paramilitary organization Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) with a container of military weapons through Pakistani criminals in exchange for transporting a huge amount of drugs to the port of Joya Tauro, writes Agerpres, citing AFP.

Traffic money has been invested in the real estate sector, hotels, restaurants and supermarkets, especially in Germany, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina.

How the authorities managed to track down the mafia

The investigation largely began after Belgian authorities discovered links between a pizzeria in the city of Genk and the ‘Ndrangheta in 2019.

The restaurant’s owners are said to have been in contact with various cocaine dealers, and police then began investigating a cousin of the two suspects who lived in Munich.

Cryptophone investigations played an important role in Wednesday’s operations. The police managed to hack the crypto services EncroChat and SkyEcc, which gave them an insight into how the mafia organization works.

Until now, Ndrangheta had completely avoided telephone conversations, preferring to travel hundreds of kilometers for meetings. But the coronavirus pandemic and restrictions on movement forced the members of the group to change their tactics, writes Deutsche Welle.