Italian police target 32 in anti-mafia raids

Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-26 01:48:21|Editor: Mu Xuequan
Video PlayerClose

ROME, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- Some 32 people were arrested in an anti-mafia operation at a seaside district of the Italian capital on Thursday, Italian police said.

The raids targeted members and affiliates of the Spada family, which was believed to run illegal businesses in the area as a mafia clan. All of the suspects were variously charged with mafia association, murder, extortion, and loan-sharking, police said in a statement.

The clan would have exerted "control over all seaside activities (Ostia being one of Rome's most popular sea resorts), as well as over gaming business, and other commercial activities," it added.

Among those targeted by arrest warrants was Carmine Spada, the clan's alleged boss, who was already serving a 10-year jail sentence for extortion aggravated by mafia methods.

Ostia has been under the lens of prosecutors in latest years, due to worrying signals of an increasing presence of both Italy's traditional mobs and local groups behaving like mafia.

The municipality was dissolved by the Italian government for mafia infiltrations in 2015, and put under special administration for two years.

During a tense electoral campaign last November, the district came again under the spotlight after Roberto Spada -- brother of jailed boss Carmine -- attacked a journalist during a TV interview, breaking his nose.

Fully broadcast, the attack sparked outrage across the country, and the Interior Ministry deployed some 400 extra police. Roberto Spada was arrested for assault, along with an accomplice, and would now stand on trial for that aggression starting from March 30.

Both reached by the new charges on Thursday, Roberto and Carmine Spada were suspected of having ordered a double murder in 2011, according to Ansa news agency.

The latest operation was coordinated by Rome anti-mafia prosecutors, and carried out by military police Carabinieri in cooperation with the coast guard.

Managing betting rooms appeared to be a crucial business for the Spada clan, according to investigators.

"Some of the people under investigation appear as the holders of several betting rooms and slot machine-type activities," police said. "The goal was to expand their control such activities in some areas within the capital as well."

Commenting on Twitter, Rome mayor Virginia Raggi thanked police, prosecutors, and the Interior Ministry for the results. "Rome revives with the operation against the Spada clan in #Ostia," Raggi wrote.

TOP STORIES
EDITOR’S CHOICE
MOST VIEWED
EXPLORE XINHUANET
010020070750000000000000011105091369250721