Italy: 82 suspected mafiosi arrested in Foggia raid

Authorities in the southern Italian region of Puglia have arrested 82 individuals suspected of membership in the country's newest crime organization, the "Societa foggiana," also known as the "fourth mafia" among law enforcement.

In Monday's operation, codenamed "Game Over," police arrested individuals accused of drug trafficking, illegal weapons possession and extortion. Drugs and weapons were confiscated during the raid.

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, who thanked law enforcement for their work in the raid, said the operation had landed a "very strong blow against the Foggia mafia, one of the [country's] most dangerous and violent criminal organizations."

How does the Foggia mafia operate?

Carabinieri in the city of Foggia say three mafia clans there recently compromised to come to an agreement allowing them to monopolize the cocaine trade in the region rather than to fight one another for a piece of it.

Authorities say the clans funneled millions of euros in annual cocaine sales into a "shared fund" that financed operations and assisted the families of jailed clan members.

Investigators in Puglia say the group's business model is based largely on the "systematic extortion" of rivals and locals, as well as an "aggressive and comprehensive set of rules" regarding drug sales.

Extortion and enforcement are carried out by local family "battalions."

Despite the fact that the Foggia mafia is less well-known than clans from Sicily, Calabria or Naples, authorities say they have a stranglehold on cocaine sales in the southeast and are extremely violent — Foggia has the third-highest homicide rate in the country.

Monday's large-scale raids were the third in seven years. So far, authorities have arrested 150 individuals with ties to the Societa foggiana.

js/nm (AFP, dpa)