ITALIAN POLICE ARREST 40 AND FILM MAFIA INITIATION (STA BREAKING NEWS and ARCHIVES)

by STANews , Tuesday, November 18, 2014, 12:19

Anti-mafia police have released unprecedented footage of an initiation ritual filmed as part of an inquiry into the 'Ndrangheta crime syndicate.

Some 40 suspects were arrested as the authorities targeted mafia cells in northern Italy.

Three groups were under investigation, based north of Milan, in the provinces of Como and Lecco in Lombardy region.

Most of the arrests were in northern Italy, but some of the men were detained in Sicily.

The 'Ndrangheta is based in Calabria, in the far south "toe-end" of Italy.

Italian media said the investigation had involved phone intercepts as well as secret filming and the three groups at the ceremony came from small villages in Como and Lecco.
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Mafia initiation rite - by James Reynolds, BBC News, Rome

The grainy pictures, filmed from a distance by a hidden police camera, show for the first time an initiation ceremony into the southern Italian mafia known as the 'Ndrangheta.

VIDEO AND MORE...

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30095254