Italy: Southern mayor and five town councillors arrested in anti-mafia raids

Cosenza, 12 July (AKI) - A local mayor and five town councillors were among 38 people arrested in a major anti-mafia swoop in southern Italy on Friday. Police also seized assets worth 60 million euros including 22 companies during the operation. The mayor of Calabrian coastal town of Scalea, Pasquale Basile and the other suspects face numerous charges. These include mafia association, kidnapping, corruption, fraud, threats and intimidation, extortion, robbery, possessing illegal weapons and rigging public works tenders. The former head of Scalea's traffic police, the head of the town hall's technical office and several other town council employees were among those arrested, police said. Italy's interior minister Angelino Alfano appointed the government's top representative in Cosenza, Raffaele Cannizzaro, to administer Scalea following the arrests. One of many sectors infiltrated by the local mob was waste disposal, where it paid a bribe of 500,000 euros to obtain a single urban solid waste collection contract from the local council, anti-mafia investigators said. The head of the European anti-mafia commission, Sonia Alfano, described the backdrop to Friday's arrests as "alarming" and "very serious". "The situation in Scalea is very serious. Mafia clans have infiltrated the town council, have rigged tenders and intimidated citizens through the use of weapons... it is truly alarming," she said. "It shows that politicians and businesses are colluding extensively with the 'Ndrangheta," Alfano added, referring to the Calabrian mafia. A municipal or civic list won the last local elections in Scalea, which according to Catanzaro prosecutor Giuseppe Borrelli was a mere front for the 'Ndrangheta. "Our investigations have shown that Scalea was being directly run by two local 'Nrangheta clans and the civic list was a mere front," Borelli said. Supermarkets, car dealerships, travel agents, beach resorts, amusement parks, clothing and various other stores, estate agents, and shady agricultural 'cooperatives' were among businesses impounded in Friday's operation. Police also seized 81 properties located in Calabria, Basilicata, Umbria and Lazio, as well as bank accounts, insurance policies and a 50 hectare plot of land, two yachts and 33 vehicles including luxury and vintage cars.

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