Italy.
Information provided by a grandmother, hoping to save her grandson from drugs, helped police dismantle a network of drug traffickers in Calabria, southern Italy, authorities said Wednesday.
During the operation, eighteen people were arrested who were accused of drug trafficking and linked to the Calabrian mafia clan Muto.
The so-called “Muto clan” is one of the many families that make up the ‘Ndrangheta, the dreaded Calabrian mafia, considered one of the most powerful in the world and whose main activity is the cocaine trade.
“The grandmother spoke to the police to ask them to save her grandson,” police commander Colonel Piero Sutera told the press. Carabinieri from Cosenza, in Calabria.
The criminal group was also involved in blackmailing businessmen active in the tourism industry.
“Many people suffered from the arrogance of those criminals who demanded money” with threats, the prosecution told the mafia. Nicola Gratteri, quoted by the newspaper Southern Gazette
Gratteri, prosecutor of the ongoing lawsuit against the ‘Ndrangheta With more than 300 defendants, he specified that some of the money from extortion is used to support the clan members who are in prison and their families.