Newspaper Page Text
10A Thursday, December 6, 2018
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
WORLD
Crackdown on Italian
mob leads to 84 arrests
CHRISTOPH REICHWEIN I Associated Press
Masked police stand in an ice parlor in Duisburg, western
Germany, Wednesday, Dec. 5, as authorities conduct
coordinated raids in Germany, Italy, Belgium and the
Netherlands in a crackdown on the Italian mafia.
BY MIKE CORDER
Associated Press
THE HAGUE, Nether
lands — In an investigation
that underscored an Italian
crime syndicate’s role as a
leading player in interna
tional cocaine trafficking,
police in four countries
arrested at least 84 sus
pected mobsters Wednes
day in a series of carefully
coordinated raids.
Those detained allegedly
work for the Italian ‘ndrang-
heta criminal network that
traffics in cocaine on a
global scale.
“It’s almost a cliche,
but the operation carried
out today confirms again
the great danger of the
‘ndrangheta, not just in
drug trafficking, where
it’s the undisputed leader,
but (also) in the financial
sphere,” said Francesco
Ratta, a top police official in
the southern Italian region
of Calabria. “It’s an evolved
‘ndrangheta, that we can say
knows no borders .. It’s an
‘ndrangheta that day by day
changes its skin .. but still
keeps ties” to its home base
in Calabria.
European officials
announced the arrests at
the Hague headquarters
of Eurojust, the European
Union prosecutors agency
set up to bolster the fight
against cross-border crime
in the 28-nation bloc. Euro
just and EU police agency
Europol coordinated the
raids.
“Today we send a clear
message to organized crime
groups across Europe,”
said Filippo Spiezia, vice
president of Eurojust, the
EU prosecution agency
that coordinated the raids.
“They are not the only ones
able to operate across bor
ders; so are Europe’s judi
ciary and law enforcement
communities.”
As well as arresting doz
ens of suspected mobsters
in Italy, Germany, Belgium
and the Netherlands, police
seized drugs and around
$2.3 million.
It was the second signifi
cant mob takedown in as
many days. On Tuesday,
Italian authorities said they
had dismantled the rebuilt
upper echelons of the Mafia
in the Sicilian capital of
Palermo by arresting 46
people, including the man
presumed to have taken
over as provincial kingpin.
Wednesday’s raids were
the culmination of a two-
year investigation code-
named Pollino against the
powerful ‘ndrangheta crim
inal group on allegations of
cocaine trafficking, money
laundering, bribery and vio
lence, Eurojust said.
The ‘ndrangheta is Italy’s
most powerful criminal
organization, eclipsing by
far Sicily’s Cosa Nostra or
the Naples area Camorra.
Eurojust said the massive
probe was the biggest of its
kind in Europe. About four
tons of cocaine were traced
during the investigation.
Cocaine and ecstasy pills
also were seized in Wednes
day’s raids.
Italian police hailed the
close cooperation between
European police forces and
Eurojust’s coordination,
saying it was an important
new crime-fighting tactic
that allowed investigators in
different countries to share
information in real time.
But Italy’s top Mafia pros
ecutor, Federico Cafiero De
Raho, also sounded a note
of caution, saying the raids
only scratched the surface
of the powerful ‘ndrangheta,
whose tentacles and illicit
activities, including huge
cocaine trafficking opera
tions, were spread all over
the world.
Speaking in The Hague,
Cafiero de Raho said the
arrests “are nothing for
‘ndrangheta. There are
thousands of people who
should be arrested and bil
lions of euros that should be
seized.”
A leading expert on the
‘ndrangheta, Catanzaro-
based Prosecutor Nicola
Gratteri, recently said the
Calabrian-based ‘ndrang
heta syndicate has for years
been buying up hotels,
restaurants and other
properties in Belgium, the
Netherlands, France and
Germany to both launder
some of the billions of dol
lars it rakes in through
cocaine trafficking, as well
as invest that money to start
“clean” businesses and earn
even more revenue.
Putin: If US develops banned
missiles, Russia will follow suit
BY NATALIYA VASILYEVA
Associated Press
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladi
mir Putin on Wednesday warned the
United States that if it walks out of a key
arms treaty and starts developing the type
of missiles banned by it, Russia will do the
same.
Putin’s remarks to Russian news agen
cies on Wednesday came a day after
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
announced at a NATO meeting that Wash
ington will suspend its obligations under
the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces
Treaty (INF) in 60 days, citing Russian
“cheating.”
The U.S. has shared intelligence evi
dence with its NATO allies that it says
shows that Russia’s new SSC-8 ground-fired
cruise missile could give Moscow the abil
ity to launch a nuclear strike in Europe
with little or no notice. Russia has denied
the accusations.
President Donald Trump earlier this
year announced his decision to withdraw
from the INF, accusing Russia and China
— which is not a signatory to the treaty —
of violating it.
Putin on Wednesday accused the United
States of making up excuses for pulling out
of the pact, saying that the U.S. first made
up its mind to walk out of it and only then
“started to look for the reasons why they
should do it.”
“It seems that our American partners
believe that the situation has changed so
much that the U.S. has to have this type of
weapons,” he said in televised remarks.
“What would be our response? A very sim
ple one: in that case, we will do the same.”
Speaking at a briefing of foreign military
attaches earlier, Gen. Valery Gerasimov,
chief of staff of the Russian military,
warned of a Russian response and said
that it would be the countries that host U.S.
intermediate-range missiles that would
become immediate targets for Russia.
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