31 arrests in crackdown on organised crime

Police have conducted a major crackdown on the 'ndrangheta crime syndicate, arresting scores of suspects in Italy and Germany and seeking more as far afield as Canada and Australia.

The cross-border operation shows how the 'ndrangheta is now considered more powerful than the Sicilian Mafia and has extended its reach well beyond its original base in Italy's southern Calabria region.

Thirty-one suspects were picked up in Italy, police said, mostly in Calabria but also elsewhere in the country, including near Rome. Six suspects, all Italians, were apprehended in Germany on an Italian-issued European arrest warrant, German and Italian officials said.

Three suspects in Canada and one in Australia were still being sought, said Renato Cortese, a senior police official in Calabria.

Authorities said the operation also sheds light on the group's structure and operations abroad.

"There is a perfect reproduction of the Calabrian model," said Giuseppe Pignatone, the Calabrian prosecutor. "The foreign groups always maintain contact with the mother house, which is the Reggio Calabria area, where they periodically come to take their orders, directives, long-term strategies, as well as give an account of what's going on," he said in comments to Radio 24.

In the past decade, the 'ndrangheta has emerged as a powerful and feared organisation specialising in cocaine trafficking. Among atrocities linked to the group is the 2007 massacre of six Italian men as they left a birthday party at an Italian restaurant in Duisburg, Germany.

In a confidential cable released by WikiLeaks, a US diplomat said the grip of the 'ndrangheta on the economy and every aspect of life is so pervasive that Calabria would be a "failed state" if it were not part of Italy.

Yesterday's raids followed up on a massive police operation in July that put more than 300 people behind bars.

Mr Cortese said the recent arrests stem from wiretapped conversations of a top boss, Giuseppe Commisso, nicknamed The Master, arrested in July.