MILAN: Italian police arrested 40 people on Tuesday in a new crackdown targeting the ‘Ndrangheta mafia, with suspects accused of drugs trafficking with counterparts in Latin America using shadow networks of Chinese money brokers.
“Today’s raid is a crucial operation that showed how the ‘Ndrangheta is an octopus that a everywhere with interconnections all over the world,” Guardia di Finanza police captain Angelo Santori said.
The breakthrough comes less than a month after an operation in which European police arrested more than 100 mafia suspects in a major operation against drugs and weapons smuggling.
Santori, who led the latest investigation in the northern city of Bologna, said police were executing 40 arrest warrants, including for four Albanians and two Chinese suspects, as well as restricting the movements of suspected Calabrian mafia members in seven Italian regions.
The investigation, spanning late 2019 to July 2022, traced the traffic of 1.2 tons of cocaine, 450 kg of hashish and 95 kg of marijuana, Guardia di Finanza police said in a statement.
The network was able to handle drug shipments with powerful South American cartels, including the Brazilian Primeiro Comando da Capital, and Colombian, Peruvian, Mexican and Bolivian criminal organizations, police said.
The ‘Ndrangheta, which has its roots in the southern Italian region of Calabria, has surpassed Cosa Nostra as the most powerful mafia group in the country, and one of the largest criminal networks in the world.
“An active role was played by a network of Chinese subjects through the so-called ‘fei ch’ien’, an informal money transfer system with which more than 5 million euros ($5.50 million) was laundered,” Santori added.
According to Italian police, after receiving the cash, the Chinese money brokers forwarded it to trading companies in China and Hong Kong. The companies then delivered the money to the drug brokers and the South American cartels themselves through agents based abroad.
Several recent investigations have shown how drugs cartels in Italy are increasingly using shadow networks of unlicensed Chinese money brokers to conceal cross-border payments.
The investigation was helped by accessing encrypted chats on a platform that was dismantled in 2021 by a Europol Joint Investigation Team, and cooperation with the US Homeland Security Investigations, the Italian police statement said. ($1 = 0.9084 euros)
Italy police arrest 40 mafia suspects for drug smuggling via Chinese money brokers
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Italy police arrest 40 mafia suspects for drug smuggling via Chinese money brokers
- The breakthrough comes less than a month after an operation in which European police arrested more than 100 mafia suspects
- Police were executing 40 arrest warrants, including for four Albanians and two Chinese suspects
Two high-speed trains derail in Spain, broadcaster reports seven people killed
- The accident happened near Adamuz, which is near Cordoba
MADRID: Two high-speed trains derailed on Sunday in southern Spain, the rail network operator said, and state-run television channel RTVE said seven people had died, citing police sources.
The accident happened near Adamuz, in Cordoba province. Seven people have been confirmed dead by police, RTVE said, adding that 100 people have been injured, 25 seriously.
Spanish police did not immediately respond to request for comment from Reuters.
“The Iryo 6189 Malaga — (to Madrid) train has derailed from the track at Adamuz, crashing onto the adjacent track. The (Madrid) to Huelva train which was traveling on the adjacent track has also derailed,” said Adif, which runs the rail network, in a social media post.
Adif said the accident happened at 6:40 p.m. (1740 GMT), about ten minutes after the Iryo train left Cordoba heading toward Madrid.
Iryo is a private rail operator, majority-owned by Italian state-controlled railway group Ferrovie dello Stato. The train involved was a Freccia 1000 train which was traveling between Malaga and Madrid, a spokesperson for Ferrovie dello Stato said.
Iryo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Adif has suspended all rail services between Madrid and Andalusia.
Andalusia emergency services said on social media that all rail traffic had been halted and emergency services were on their way, including at least nine ambulances and emergency support vehicles.
CALLS FOR MEDICS
A woman named Carmen posted on X that she had been on board the Iryo to Madrid. “Ten minutes after departing (from Cordoba) the train started to shake a lot, and it derailed from coach 6 behind us. The lights went out.”
Footage posted by another Iryo train passenger, also on X, showed an Iryo staffer in a fluorescent jacket instructing passengers to remain in their seats in the darkened carriages, and those with first aid training to keep watch over fellow passengers.
The staffer told passengers they would be evacuated when it was safe to leave, but at that moment the safest place was on the train. He also urged people to maintain mobile phone batteries to be able to use their torches when they disembarked.
The passenger wrote: “In our carriage we’re well but we don’t know about the other carriages. There’s smoke and they’re calling for a doctor.”
The regional government has activated emergency protocols to mobilize more resources to the accident site. Locals posted on social media that a building would be set up in the village nearest the crash for evacuated passengers to be taken to.
Salvador Jimenez, a journalist for RTVE who was on board the Iryo train, shared images showing the nose of the rear carriage of the train lying on its side, with evacuated passengers sitting on the side of the carriage facing upwards.
Jimenez told TVE by phone from beside the stricken trains that passengers had used emergency hammers to smash the windows and climb out, and they had seen two people taken out of the overturned carriages on stretchers.
“There’s a certain uncertainty about when we’ll get to Madrid, where we’ll spend the night, we’ve had no message from the train company yet,” he said. “It’s very cold but here we are.”
