Raids form part of three-year investigation into crime syndicate controlling cocaine flow into Europe. The suspects are mostly accused of money laundering, criminal tax evasion, fraud, drug possession, production and smuggling, mafia-type criminal association and the possession and trafficking of weapons, authorities said on Wednesday.
The investigation uncovered how the networks used ports in Ecuador, Panama and Brazil to ship Colombian drugs to northern European ports, while also trafficking in weapons.
The proceeds were laundered through restaurants, ice-cream shops and car washes, and the money sent back to Colombian drug producers via a Chinese wire-transfer service, according to Italian officials and a Carabinieri press release. Italian and Belgian authorities said the syndicate was suspected of smuggling nearly 25 tonnes of cocaine from South America to Europe in container ships arriving in Antwerp, Rotterdam and the Calabrian port of Gioia Tauro between October and January A total of people were arrested in Italy and other EU countries on the orders of police in the southern city of Reggio Calabria, Italian police said.
Related investigations led to the arrest of 24 people in Germany , they said. In Germany, where more than 1, police searched dozens of homes, offices, and stores in several states, the raids focused on targets in North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria, Thuringia, Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate.
Police taskforces in each state were supported by special units from the German federal government and other states as well as officers from the customs and tax investigation departments, the DPA news agency reported. Authorities in Bavaria said they had been investigating a woman and seven men, all Italian nationals aged between 25 and 48, since July The Munich-based group was suspected of involvement in financing cocaine smuggling and money laundering.
