ROME, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Italian police arrested 25 people on Thursday in a major operation against mafia clans in the northern Piedmont region, local media reported.
All of those arrested were variously charged with drug trafficking, illegal firearms trafficking, and extortion, according to Ansa news agency.
The 2-year-long probe -- coordinated by prosecutors of the Anti-Mafia District Directorate (DDA) in Turin -- targeted people allegedly linked to the Calabrian mafia also known as 'Ndrangheta.
The suspects would have re-created a local unit of the 'Ndrangheta in northwest Piedmont, running their illegal businesses mainly in the provinces of Asti and Cuneo, local media said, citing a police statement.
The arrests were made in the early hours of Thursday morning, along with over 50 searches, anti-mafia prosecutors told a press conference.
The raids were carried out by some 300 officers of Italy's military Carabinieri police.
In a separate operation on Thursday, police in Milan detained another 23 people in the northern Lombardy, Piedmont, and Emilia Romagna regions.
Sixteen people were brought to jail, and seven were put under house arrests, according to state-run RAI News TV channel.
They were charged with drug trafficking, illicit possession of firearms, receiving stolen goods, and illegal ownership of assets, the Carabinieri police in Milan said in a statement.
The group would have regularly received supplies of cocaine from members of 'Ndrangheta clans in northern Italy, police added.
