Searches and arrests are under way in the provinces of Reggio Calabria, Naples, Caserta, Turin, Benevento, Catanzaro.
Other catches and searches are, however, being executed in New York.
Over 40 the suspects for criminal association aimed at international drug trafficking and mafia association.
The investigations, conducted by the Central Operational Service and the Reggio Calabria Mobile Squad, carried out together with the homologous US investigative structure, have revealed the dynamics of huge cocaine trafficking between South America and Calabria, with the involvement of subjects, believed to be linked to narcos cartels in Central and South America.
The operation is the result of a work, initiated under the "Pantheon" protocol of the Ministry of the Interior, which provided for the exchange between Italy and the United States, of experts in the fight against mafia-type crime.
During the investigations in Italy and in the United States, Italian undercover agents were employed by the Central Operational Service and by the FBI, which allowed the seizure of over 3 kilograms of heroin and 5 of marijuana.
Fundamental to the investigation was the contribution of an agent who, under the pseudonym of Jimmy, managed to infiltrate the New York clans and establish relations with Franco Lupoi, one of the main perpetrators of heroin trafficking between NY and Reggio Calabria.
The investigations made it possible to foil the delivery of containers, with hundreds of kilos of cocaine consignments, organized between Guyana and the port of Gioia Tauro. The drug would have arrived in Italy, dissolved in coconut and pineapple jars.
Today they gave news to the press, at the National Anti-mafia Prosecutor's Office, magistrates of Reggio Calabria and New York, together with Italian and US investigators: the Prosecutor of the Republic Cafiero De Raho, the Director of the DAC Prefect Nicola Zito and the Director of the Service Operations Center Raffaele Grassi, the Police Chief of Reggio Calabria Guido Longo, and the manager of the Mobile Squad Gennaro Semeraro together with representatives of the FBI Jason Fickett and Leo Taddeo.
Monica Palermo
