Cuban arrested in operation against mafia and drug trafficking in Italy

A Cuban is one of the 26 detained this Monday in Genoa, Italy, in a police operation that dismantled aMafia-type criminal organization dedicated todrug trafficking.

The Economic-Financial Police of Imperia, together with the Economic-Financial Police Unit of Genoa and the Central Investigation Service on Organized Crime of the Guardia di Finanza, executed the arrest warrant in the early morning (local time), in the frame of theAres 2021 operation.

Of those arrested, 23 were sent to prison and three were placed under house arrest, according to thelocal press.

Besides ofCuban - whose identity has not been revealed -, two Ecuadorians and four Albanians were also part of the group.

Seventeen of the detained suspects are accused of being members of a criminal association run by members of theDe Marte-Gioffrè family, originally from Seminara and related to the groupsfrom 'Ndrangheta residents in Calabria, but rooted for years in the Diano Marina area, which have operated in the province of Imperia since 2020.

The organization was dedicated topurchase, cultivation, transportation, resale and transfer of cocaine, hashish and marijuana.

According to what they saylocal newspapers, the suspects are charged with 56 episodes of purchasing, transferring, transporting quantities of cocaine and marijuana, as well as growing marijuana.

In addition, crimes committed against buyers of narcotic substances to force them to pay debts, injuries, theft of means of transportation, extortion, threats and possession of a firearm, all of them aggravated by acting with methods attributable to mafia organizations.

The permanent monitoring and observation, in addition to the intervention of more than 100 telephone numbers, allowed the police to control the activities of the criminal association and verify that the suspectDomenico Gioffrè, despite being under house arrest, along withJohn of Mars and other members of the De Marte family, created a prosperous businessdrug trafficking in the province of Imperia, thanks to direct supply from the Gioia Tauro plain, taking advantage of privileged channels associated with the'Ndrangheta.

The center of the organization's operations and decision-making was in the De Marte family residence located in Diano Castello, where, thanks to the use of cameras and microphones, it was possible to identify the members of the group, the roles of each one. and record the different phases of thedrug trafficking.

According to investigators, through mafia methods, the organization strengthened itscontrol over drug trafficking in the Diano Marina area and neighboring municipalities, where it imposed its monopoly in the trafficking of narcotic substances through violence and threats - even at gunpoint - and evoking the name of the De Marte-Gioffrè family to force buyers to pay for the narcotics purchased.

The group of which the Cuban was a part had its own or rented vehicles specifically to transport the narcotics, which in some cases were also transported on buses that circulated on the Reggio Calabria/Ventimiglia route.

The police also ordered the preventive embargo against 18 suspects for a total amount of 866,400 euros, product of the illicit activity carried out by the criminal association; about 128 banking relationships, 18 motor vehicles and 12 motorcycles, six properties and 39 land located in various Italian provinces.

Last May, aCuban in an irregular situation in Chile was arrested in a police operation against the criminal organization called The Northern Mafia, carried out in Iquique, a coastal city in the north of the country.