Italian 'maxi trial' convicts more than 200 'Ndrangheta mobsters

An Italian court has convicted and sentenced more than 200 people of crimes including criminal association, extortion and bribery in what has been described as Italy’s largest mafia trial in three decades.

- Lorenzo Tondo

The verdicts mark the end of a three-year maxitrial” held in a high security courtroom in the southern region of Calabria. It was built specially to hold up to 350 defendants, 400 lawyers and the 900 witnesses providing testimony against an extensive network belonging to the notorious Ndrangheta.

Although more than 100 were acquitted by the court in the town of Lamezia Terme, the sentencing represented one of the most significant blows to date against the organised crime syndicate, which has a near monopoly on Europe’s cocaine trade.

Almost all of the defendants were arrested in December 2019 after an investigation that began in 2016 and covered at least 11 Italian regions. About 2,500 officers participated in raids focused on suspects in Vibo Valentia, Calabria, the heart of an area controlled mainly by the Ndrangheta’s Mancuso clan.