Police arrest 300 in Mafia purge

The man believed to be the N'drangheta's top boss, Domenico Oppedisano, was picked up in Rosarno, a small coastal town in Calabria, the southern region where the organisation is based, police said.

The largest police operation took place in the Milan region of Lombardy, where 160 people were reportedly arrested. They included Pino Neri, whom police said was in charge of the gang's businesses in Milan, where the N'drangheta has been making major inroads.

Also arrested were Lombardy businessmen and the director of state medical services in the city of Pavia.

Investigators described the operation as one of the biggest blows ever to an organisation that is now considered to be more powerful than the Sicilian Mafia. The raids involved 3,000 police across the country and the charges against those arrested ranged from murder and extortion to arms and drug trafficking and criminal association.

Interior minister Roberto Maroni said the sweep struck at the heart of the N'drangheta's organisation: "Without doubt this is absolutely the most important operation against N'drangheta in recent years. They have been hit in the heart of their organisational and financial structure."

Applause reportedly broke out in the Italian Senate upon hearing the news.

The N'drangheta is said to be the most lucrative organised crime gang in the world as it controls the drug links between the South American cartels and Europe.

The sweep dismantled some of the most powerful families in the organisation, it was reported. It also shed light on the N'drangheta's power hierarchy, exposing a more centralised and pyramid-like organisation than previously thought.

Anti-mafia prosecutors say Milan has become the economic centre for the organisation, which migrated to the north in the 1970s and 1980s. Nearly all of the Mafia clans are present in Lombardy.

Oppedisano received his nomination as top boss during the wedding of the children of two local bosses in 2009, as he was the "oldest and wisest" mobster.

Neri, the alleged Milan boss, was promoted during a dinner with local bosses, it was reported. Little is known about Oppedisano, a softly spoken pensioner. Police sources said he had several children and grand children with some involved in the "family business."

The last big operation against the Calabrian mob dates to the 1990s.

Since then - mainly through its grip on drug trafficking - the N'drangheta has expanded its power, not only in Italy but in such countries as Germany and as far away as Australia.

A clan war spread to Germany in 2007, when six Italians were gunned down by a rival gang in retribution for an earlier killing as they left a birthday celebration in the western city of Duisburg.

Italian officials have said all three people responsible for the shooting have been arrested.

Anti Mafia prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone described the N'drangheta's power and said: "They are a true and proper holding company with a turnover of more than 40 billion - more than the GDP of several small nations.

"The river of money that flows through this company from the lucrative drugs deals with South American cartels is then laundered through clean business ventures, many of them in northern Europe."

Francesco Forgione, an expert who has written a book on the N'drangheta said: "They also have a presence in London. They are not killing people there yet just investing in property."z