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Police swoop on ‘Ndrangheta mafia

Police in Germany and Italy arrested 35 alleged mafia members on Tuesday in what is being called a major blow to the notorious 'Ndrangheta syndicate.

Published: 8 March 2011 16:42 CET

Police swoop on 'Ndrangheta mafia

Photo: DPA

“We have hit at the central structure of the ‘Ndrangheta,” Carlo Pieroni, a spokesman for Carabinieri paramilitary police in the southern Italian region of Calabria who led the operation, told news agency AFP.

Pieroni said the six people arrested in Germany, as well as those targeted by three warrants in Canada and two in Australia, were accused of recycling illicit funds from Italy in shops and small construction businesses.

German police said they had arrested one man in Frankfurt and five others in the Lake Constance region in southern Germany near the border with Switzerland.

“The ‘Ndrangheta is on the brink or at least it will be forced to re-organise,” Pieroni said, adding that the arrests were on multiple charges of extortion, drug trafficking and money laundering.

Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said: “This was an exceptionally important operation as it dealt a serious blow to the ‘Ndrangheta in Italy and abroad.”

One of the men arrested in Italy hid in a bunker for several hours.

“We surrounded his house, which was in the countryside. He hid in a bunker under the house and we negotiated to get him out and arrest him. We didn’t want to go in with pneumatic drills to dig him out,” Pieroni added.

The ‘Ndrangheta is one of the most powerful and secretive global crime syndicates and plays a key role in the illicit drug market. The group has an estimated annual turnover of tens of billions of euros.

The group’s heartland is the impoverished region of Calabria.

Italian news agency ANSA reported that one of the warrants in Australia was for the former mayor of the small town of Stirling, Tony Vallelonga, who emigrated from Calabria to Australia more than 30 years ago.

AFP/rm

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Nine face trial in Germany for alleged far-right coup plot

Nine suspected participants in the coup plot will take the stand in the first set of proceedings to open in the sprawling court case, split among three courts in three cities.

The suspects are accused of having participated in the “military arm” of the organisation led by the minor aristocrat and businessman Prince Heinrich XIII Reuss.

The alleged plot is the most high-profile recent case of far-right violence, which officials say has grown to become the biggest extremist threat in Germany.

The organisation led by Reuss was an eclectic mix of characters and included, among others, a former special forces soldier, a former far-right MP, an astrologer, and a well-known chef.

Reuss, along with other suspected senior members of the group, will face trial in the second of the three cases, in Frankfurt in late May.

The group aimed to install him as head of state after its planned takeover.

Heinrich XIII arrested at his home following a raid in 2022.

Heinrich XIII arrested at his home following a raid in 2022. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Boris Roessler

The alleged plotters espoused a mix of “conspiracy myths” drawn from the global QAnon movement and the German Reichsbûrger (Citizens of the Reich) scene, according to prosecutors.

The Reichsbürger movement includes right-wing extremists and gun enthusiasts who reject the legitimacy of the modern German republic.

Its followers generally believe in the continued existence of the pre-World War I German Reich, or empire, under a monarchy, and several groups have declared their own states.

Such Reichsbürger groups were driven by “hatred of our democracy”, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in Berlin on Sunday.

“We will continue our tough approach until we have fully exposed and dismantled militant ‘Reichsbürger’ structures,” she added.

READ ALSO: Who was involved in the alleged plot to overthrow German democracy?

‘Treasonous undertaking’

According to investigators, Reuss’s group shared a belief that Germany was run by members of a “deep state” and that the country could be liberated with the help of a secret international alliance.

The nine men to stand trial in Stuttgart are accused by prosecutors of preparing a “treasonous undertaking” as part of the Reichsbürger plot.

As part of the group, they are alleged to have aimed to “forcibly eliminate the existing state order” and replace it with their own institutions.

The members of the military arm were tasked with establishing, supplying and recruiting new members for “territorial defence companies”, according to prosecutors.

Among the accused are a special forces soldier, identified only as Andreas M. in line with privacy laws, who is said to have used his access to scout out army barracks.

Others were allegedly responsible for the group’s IT systems or were tasked with liaising with the fictitious underground “alliance”, which they thought would rally to the plotters’ aid when the coup was launched.

The nine include Alexander Q., who is accused by federal prosecutors of acting as the group’s propagandist, spreading conspiracy theories via the Telegram messaging app.

Two of the defendants, Markus L. and Ralf S., are accused of weapons offences in addition to the charge of treason.

Markus L. is also accused of attempted murder for allegedly turning an assault rifle on police and injuring two officers during a raid at his address in March 2023.

Police swooped in to arrest most of the group in raids across Germany in December 2022 and the charges were brought at the end of last year.

Three-part trial

Proceedings in Stuttgart are set to continue until early 2025.

In all, 26 people are accused in the huge case against the extremist network, with trials also set to open in Munich and Frankfurt.

Reuss will stand trial in Frankfurt from May 21st, alongside another ringleader, an ex-army officer identified as Ruediger v.P., and a former MP for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Birgit Malsack-Winkemann.

The Reichsbürger group had allegedly organised a “council” to take charge after their planned putsch, with officials warning preparations were at an advanced stage.

The alleged plotters had resources amounting to 500,000 euros ($536,000) and a “massive arsenal of weapons”, according to federal prosecutors.

Long dismissed as malcontents and oddballs, believers in Reichsbuerger-type conspiracies have become increasingly radicalised in recent years and are seen as a growing security threat.

Earlier this month, police charged a new suspect in relation to another coup plot.

The plotters, frustrated with pandemic-era restrictions, planned to kidnap the German health minister, according to investigators.

Five other suspected co-conspirators in that plot went on trial in Koblenz last May.

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