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| Europe |
| Italy busts 'mafia operation' in large migrant center in Calabria |
| 2017-05-16 |
[DW] Over 500 agents took part in the overnight raids that saw 68 people placed in durance vileMaw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! in Calabria, officials said on Monday. The crackdown targeted the suspected members of the Arena crime clan, part of the powerful 'Ndrangheta mafia organization in southern Italia. According to the Sherlocks, the suspects infiltrated the large migrant reception center at Isola di Capo Rizzuto and siphoned off state funds through the complex, which is linked to a Catholic charity. The local priest Edoardo Scordio was also among the suspects. "Some 32 million euros ($35 million) went straight into the clan's pocket," assistant prosecutor Vincenzo Luberto said. He added an accusation that Father Scordio had received 150,000 euros for offering "spiritual guidance" to the 'Money printing' through migrant center Authorities believe that the Calabrian-based Arena clan has controlled the center for over a decade. The camp's management allegedly fixed contracts for providing food to the The Mafiosi reportedly set up the scheme with the help of Leonardo Sacco, the local head of the Roman Catholic Misericordia association, which is officially in charge of the Sant'Anna Cara facility. "The Cara of Isola Capo Rizzuto had become a money-printing operation for organized crime thanks to the complicity of those who ran the center," said head of the Italian parliament's anti-mafia commission, Rosy Bindi. Through the center in Calabria, the mafia also made connections with two other facilities and the reception center on the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa. Commenting on the Monday arrests, Italia's anti-graft chief Raffaele Cantone said that the mafia infiltration was "just the tip of the iceberg, and certainly not a one-off case." Paying for 'ghost' Authorities have long suspected wrongdoing in the Isola Capo Rizzuto camp, which at one time held 1,500 A year later, the local prefecture hinted that the number of people in the center might be exaggerated, with management taking money from the state for "ghost" "If the organization was supposed to provide 500 meals, it provided 300 and the rest went hungry," well-known anti-mafia prosecutor Nicola Gratteri said. The Calabrian-based 'Ndrangheta syndicate is believed to be the most powerful criminal group in Italia and one of Europe's biggest cocaine importers. |
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