61 arrested in anti-mafia operation in Italy

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Italian police arrested 61 people in an anti-mafia operation in the central region of Umbria on Wednesday.

Assets worth around 30 million euros (37 million U.S. dollars) were also seized in the operation.

The operation targeted people allegedly belonging to the southern Calabria-based crime syndicate called 'Ndrangheta, which is currently considered the most powerful of the three major Italian mafia organizations.

Those arrested were variously charged with mafia association, extortion, usury, bankruptcy fraud, drug trafficking, pimping, and other crimes, ANSA news agency said.

Raids were carried out by officers of the Special Operations Group (ROS) of Italy's military police in Perugia, the regional capital of Umbria, and other smaller towns around.

According to prosecutors of the Anti-mafia District Directorate (DDA) in Perugia, the people arrested had direct links with the 'Ndrangheta clans based in Calabria, especially with the leading Farao family from the small town of Ciro, La Repubblica newspaper reported.

Their illegal activities allegedly resulted in a "widespread infiltration of the local economy" in Umbria, and especially in the province of Perugia, and the group would have acted with "typical mafia-type methods".

According to investigators, the probe could rely on many witnesses, most of all small entrepreneurs in the construction sector who reported to the police about death threats and other intimidation acts with which the people arrested were used to accompanying their offer of "protection".

The operation hit the headlines on Wednesday morning, since Perugia and the nearby Umbria region are among the wealthiest and most developed areas in Italy and were considered quite free of the presence of mafia organizations.

The Calabrian mafia is currently believed to be more dangerous than the Sicilian mob, Cosa Nostra, or the Naples-based Camorra, due to its quasi-monopoly in international drug trafficking, especially cocaine, and in extortion and money-laundering.

According to a recent study by Demoskopika research institute, its annual turnover in 2013 could be estimated at some 53 billion euros (65 billion U.S. dollars).

'Ndrangheta have established cells in some 30 countries around the world, according to Italian and international investigators.

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