The drug trafficking 'Ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia is deeply entrenched in Australia as reported by Jo McKenna for The Sydney Morning Herald:
Days after police smashed a multimillion-dollar drug ring with alleged mafia links in Sydney and Mildura, a new report by Italy's top anti-mafia investigators has named several Calabrian mafia clans that have created "permanent links" with key family members in Australia. In its annual report for last year, the National Anti-Mafia Directorate said the Calabrian Mafia, also known as 'Ndrangheta, had been transformed from a localised criminal operation in the impoverished south of Italy into a vast and complex international enterprise that exploits "deeply rooted" links in Australia. In the report, obtained by the Herald, the directorate names several powerful clans, including Sergi, Barbaro and Papalia, as groups that have "active affiliates" in Australia. * * * The directorate's report reveals an enormous worldwide expansion of the Calabrian Mafia, which it says has become the European leader in trafficking cocaine through ports in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. The organisation has an annual turnover of more than $70 billion, according to some estimates.
Last week nine men from Sydney and Melbourne were charged "over a multi-million dollar, mafia-style drug empire" as reported by Josh Jerga for The Sydney Morning Herald:
Nine men of Italian descent were arrested, ranging in age from 26 to 69, police said. The charges ranged from manufacturing a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug to participating in a criminal group. * * * Det Supt Katsogiannis said police had seized millions of dollars worth of drugs, including amphetamines, steroids and precursor chemicals as well as a pill press and other drug manufacturing equipment.
