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Scores held in global drug bust | |
(40 minutes later) | |
Police in four nations have held about 200 people over alleged trans-Atlantic drug-trafficking involving a major Mexican drugs cartel. | |
US and Italian police seized 175, some of them picked up in Italy's Reggio Calabria region, where the N'drangheta mafia run the cocaine trade. | |
Other suspects were arrested in Mexico and Guatemala. | |
US Attorney General Michael Mukasey said the arrests came after a 15-month investigation into the Gulf cartel. | |
The cartel is already believed to have links to organised crime in Italy. | |
It is suspected of importing and distributing tonnes of drugs from Latin America into the US. | |
The US Drug Enforcement Agency said three alleged cartel leaders had been indicted. | |
Italian police say the coordinated investigation, Operation Solare, has proved to be one of its biggest operations against the mafia in recent years, and one of their most successful. | |
The N'drangheta is notoriously secretive and ruthless, characteristics which have protected its drug-trafficking hegemony until now, the BBC's Emma Wallis reports from Rome. | |
'Massive assault' | 'Massive assault' |
The US and Italian charges cover various crimes, including trafficking of cocaine and marijuana, kidnap charges, attempted murder, conspiracy to use a firearm in a violent crime and conspiracy to kill and kidnap in a foreign country. | |
Mr Mukasey said it was a "massive assault" on the drug cartel, and praised the international co-operation. | Mr Mukasey said it was a "massive assault" on the drug cartel, and praised the international co-operation. |
The suspects detained in the US were arrested in a dozen states, including 43 people picked up in Atlanta, Georgia. | |
Nicola Gratteri, the Italian public prosecutor for the anti-mafia district attorney's office of Reggio Calabria, said: "This operation exemplifies the European vision of the international fight against drug-trafficking." | |
More than 16,000kg (35,000lb) of cocaine, 450kg of methamphetamine, 9kg of heroin, 23,300kg of marijuana, 176 vehicles and 167 weapons have been seized. | |
Approximately $60.1m (£33m) in US currency was also taken. |