Defendants jeered and booed both the judge and their attorneys as the sentences were handed down against members of the Calabria criminal group that has made inroads into northern Italy through drug trafficking and other criminal activity.
Alessandro Manno and Cosimo Barranca, the dons of two families operating in northern Italy received 16 and 14 years respectively, the harshest sentences handed down.
Then the man convicted of leading Milan operations, Pasquale Zappia, collapsed in the courtroom after his 12-year sentence was read.
Nine people were acquitted.
The sentences was the result of the biggest investigation by Italian police into the ‘Ndrangheta in 15 years, during which 250 people were arrested across Italy.
The police collected evidence in more than 1 million intercepted conversations. According to the Daily Mail, police placed listening devices in personal homes, cars, and properties of suspected mafia members, as well as places they frequented like laundro-mats and restaurants.
The gang is thought to control Europe’s cocaine trade with an estimated revenue of US$47 billion, equivalent to the Gross Domestic Product of Slovenia, the world’s 74th largest economy.
