Italian police on Wednesday ordered the arrest of more than 160 alleged members of the ‘Ndrangheta mafia in what prosecutors and politicians hailed as a historic setback for the group behind much of Europe’s cocaine trade. More than 40 arrests were made in Calabria, the secretive crime group’s southern homeland, but the bulk came in dawn raids in towns and cities across the much wealthier north of Italy, where it has spread its tentacles in recent years in order to launder drugs profits. The Calabrian mob has spent decades infiltrating one of Italy’s richest and most productive areas, Bologna’s chief prosecutor Roberto Alfonso told a press conference in the region’s capital.
