this is what you want to talk about when the stench of the Drug corrupt society is so pungent in the air?  How come in a society as small as ours these humongous drug deals are going on and you tell us u do not have a clue?

Italy, US police crack big mafia drug ring

By: Philip Pullella, Reuters | Dario Thuburn, Agence France-Presse
February 12, 2014 3:07 AM

People arrested during a police operation are seen on a screen during a news conference with Italian and US investigators in Rome February 11, 2014. REUTERS/Tony Gentile

InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5

ROME - Police in Italy and New York broke up a major trans-Atlantic mafia ring on Tuesday, arresting 24 people accused of plotting to move hundreds of millions of dollars in drugs between South America, Italy and the United States.

The sting operation involving undercover agents and wire taps offered more evidence the Calabria-based 'Ndrangheta had overtaken its Sicilian cousin, the Cosa Nostra, and was trying to make inroads in the United States by forging ties with one of the traditional New York mob families, the Gambinos, a ruthless and powerful crime family that first came to public attention when it was led by godfather Carlo Gambino in the 1960s.

FBI and Italian agents jointly carried out "Operation New Bridge" simultaneously just after midnight in Brooklyn and just before dawn in Italy, American and Italian officials told a news conference in Rome.

While the 'Ndrangheta already had contacts with the New York Cosa Nostra's traditional "five families" dating back to the 1980s, officials said the links had previously always been through the Sicilian Cosa Nostra.

The direct link was something new and officers named their operation "New Bridge" -- a reference to a previous operation in the 1990s called "Old Bridge" into ties between the Italian and US Cosa Nostra.

Those arrested were accused of international drugs trafficking, money laundering, membership in organized crime and an illegal firearms charge against one US suspect who sold a gun silencer and claimed to have a "Fort Knox" arsenal of weapons.

The clans of the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta, a version of the Sicilian Mafia on the southern mainland, and members of the Gambino Mafia family in New York, were in the advanced stages of plans to smuggle some 500 kg (1,000 pounds) of pure cocaine from Guyana in South America to the port of Gioia Tauro in Calabria, the 'Ndrangheta's bastion in southern Italy, said Federico Cafiero De Raho, chief prosecutor in Reggio Calabria.

Italian investigators estimated the street value of the cocaine after cutting at about 750 million euros ($1 billion). ($1 = 0.7327 euros)

The drugs, supplied by Latin American drug cartels, were to have been sent to Italy hidden in shipments of canned fruit. Some of it would then have been smuggled to the United States.

"The 'Ndrangheta determined to move deadly narcotics across international boundaries, attempting to build a bridge of criminality and corruption to stretch from South America to Italy and back to New York," said assistant US attorney Marshall Miller.

Miller said the "bridge of criminality and corruption" had come across the "much stronger bridge" of police cooperation between Italy and the United States.

He told reporters at a news conference at the headquarters of Italy's anti-Mafia investigators with other US and Italian investigators that the operation struck at "the heart of international organized crime", adding that hundreds of thousands of dollars in mafia money being laundered through US banks had also been seized in the US.

Undercover agents

The operation began in 2012 when investigators detected a plan by members of the Ursino clan of the 'Ndrangheta to smuggle large amounts of drugs.

The plan involved 'Ndrangheta members in both Italy and New York who had forged an alliance with the Gambino family of the US Mafia.

An undercover agent was dispatched to Italy and was successful in infiltrating the clan.

The US undercover agent, named only as "Jimmy" in investigation documents, was granted special dispensation by the police to operate in Italy and had played "a key role" in the operation.

An undercover agent was also involved in the handover of 1.3 kg of heroin in New York as part of the infiltration operation.

"The 'Ndrangheta are very diffident and initially they did not want to meet him. But he worked well and eventually he entered into their confidence," said Gennaro Semeraro, the police chief in Reggio Calabria.

Material from the investigation showed the agent made several trips to the Italian region of Calabria in July and August 2012 and was involved in a transaction of 1.6 kilos of heroin with some Italian undercover agents.

Semeraro said the bugging and wiretapping aspects of the investigation were particularly complicated because the suspects spoke in "encrypted" language and made use of phone cards nominally owned by third parties.

Eight of the people arrested are alleged members and associates of the Gambinos.

The FBI and Italian investigators intercepted email messages between mobsters in Italy and the New Socco Enterprise fruit canning company in Georgetown, Guyana.

During the investigation police wire taps indicated the group was also considering arms trafficking on a considerable scale but that plan never moved beyond the initial stages.

Investigators say that in recent years 'Ndrangheta clans have made inroads in criminal activity in northern Italy and elsewhere in Europe, particularly in Germany and now want to expand in the United States.

"What we see here is 'Ndrangheta attempting to gain a foothold in the New York area and the United States," Miller said. "We also see efforts to forge cooperation between the 'Ndrangheta and the Cosa Nostra," he said. (Additional Reuters reporting by Chris Francescani in New York)

OOw Lord, is where this mud head Albert resurect from?

Even the Party Leader is timid to address the Nigel Hughes saga, the Hughes are reigning in the AFC with impunity.

And these shameless people has the balls to lecture about bias and corruption. Show me your company and I'll tell you who you are!!!!

The AFC has committed political suicide. Let them enjoy themselves. Everything is for a season.

The AFC self-destruction has gain momentum, compliments of the Mr.&Mrs Hughes

who was Roger Khan company?