Italian police and the authorities of Costa Rica have carried out a crime busting blitz called “Columbus”2, aimed at a mafia driven drug trafficking ring tied to the ‘Ndrangheta in Calabria, sources said Thursday,reports Ansa news
Police in the Central American country conducted searches seizing weapons, and arresting ten suspects , including the owner of a Costa Rican import-export company thought to be at the centre of the ring.
Investigators say the suspects smuggled cocaine out of Costa Rica in containers containing tropical fruit and tubers, stocked in American ports and then transported to Italy and Europe.
The bust comes six months after Italian police and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents carried out an initial anti-mafia operation dubbed ”Columbus”, against alleged ‘Ndrangheta affiliates operating the ring out of a restaurant run by a man from Calabria in the Queens district of New York.
A total of 16 people were arrested on that occasion including the restaurant owner Gregorio Gigliotti and his wife and son in
Gigliotti was alleged to be in close contact with the central American narcos and to provide a link between the ‘Ndrangheta Alvaro clan in Italy and members of the Genovese Mafia family in New York.
