Philip Pullella
February 11, 2014
Photo courtesy article.wn.com
ROME— Police in Italy and New York broke up a major trans-Atlantic mafia ring on Tuesday, arresting 24 people accused of plotting to move hundreds of millions of dollars in drugs between South America, Italy and the United States.
The sting operation involving undercover agents and wire taps offered more evidence the Calabria-based ‘Ndrangheta had overtaken its Sicilian cousin, the Cosa Nostra, and was trying to make inroads in the United States by forging ties with one of the traditional New York mob families, the Gambinos.
FBI and Italian agents jointly carried out “Operation New Bridge” simultaneously just after midnight in Brooklyn and just before dawn in Italy, American and Italian officials told a news conference in Rome.
Those arrested were accused of international drugs trafficking, money laundering and membership in organized crime.
The clans of the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta, a version of the Sicilian Mafia on the southern mainland, and members of the Gambino Mafia family in New York, were in the advanced stages of plans to smuggle some 500 kg (1,000 pounds) of pure cocaine from Guyana in South America to the port of Gioia Tauro in Calabria.
Italian investigators estimated the street value of the cocaine after cutting at about 750 million euros ($1 billion).