{"id":323352,"date":"2026-04-23T15:58:57","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T10:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=323352"},"modified":"2026-04-23T15:58:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T10:28:57","slug":"the-daring-raid-that-led-to-35-members-of-mafia-members-arrested-for-drug-trafficking-news-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/04\/23\/the-daring-raid-that-led-to-35-members-of-mafia-members-arrested-for-drug-trafficking-news-world\/","title":{"rendered":"The daring raid that led to 35 members of mafia members arrested for drug trafficking | News World"},"content":{"rendered":"

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35 members of a deadly Sicilian gang have been arrested in a significant crackdown over thousands and thousands in drug trafficking and a used oil scheme.<\/p>\n

Italian police arrested 35 members of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra mafia within the town of Niscemi on April 22. <\/p>\n

Video from the most effective shows officers carrying out coordinated arrests, with multiple units involved within the operation.<\/p>\n

Authorities said 35 people were targeted by court orders, with 32 placed in pre-trial detention and three under house arrest.<\/p>\n

With the assistance of canine units, territorial officers, helicopter squadrons and other officers, greater than two dozen were arrested on mafia-type association, external participation in mafia association, aggravated extortion, and illicit competition with violence and threat.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re also charged with aggravated personal aiding, illegal waste trafficking, unauthorised waste management activities, an association geared toward drug trafficking and possession for the aim of dealing drugs.<\/p>\n

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Police arrested greater than two dozen members (Picture: Italian Carabinieri)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The investigation was described as a development of a previous operation, dubbed \u2018Mondo Opposto\u2019 that led to arrests in December 2023, including a figure identified as a mafia boss who allegedly controlled territory through intimidation.<\/p>\n

Investigators said the group had infiltrated the local economy, particularly the sector coping with used vegetable oil, imposing contracts on businesses through threats.<\/p>\n

They allegedly demanded fixed payments from corporations per contract and litres of oil collected.<\/p>\n

There are also greater than 200 alleged drug transactions, involving around 1.5 kilogrammes of cocaine and three kilogrammes of cannabis.<\/p>\n

\u00a35.19 million price of assets linked to the illegal waste trade were also seized.<\/p>\n

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There have been greater than 200 alleged drug transactions (Picture: Italian Carabinieri)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two years ago, a Mafia boss accountable for dozens of murders was finally arrested after 30 years on the run.<\/p>\n

Matteo Messina Denaro was a young man when he went into hiding, but soon became Italy\u2019s most-wanted man.<\/p>\n

He had an influence base within the port city of Trapani, in western Sicily, and was considered the highest Cosa Nostra boss even while a fugitive.<\/p>\n

A few of the grisly crimes he was found guilty of are two bombings that killed anti-Mafia prosecutors, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, in 1992.<\/p>\n

He was also convicted within the murder of a Mafia informant\u2019s young son, who was strangled and dissolved in a vat of acid.<\/p>\n

Get in contact with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

For more stories like this, <\/strong>check our news page<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: 4-year-old\u2019s birthday ruined when masked teenagers steal her egg stand<\/span><\/p>\n

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To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to an internet browser that supports HTML5 video 35 members of a deadly Sicilian gang have been arrested in a significant crackdown over thousands and thousands in drug trafficking and a used oil scheme. Italian police arrested 35 members of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra mafia […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":323353,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20691],"tags":[3550,24830,3422,872,20860,3768,395,2329,4730,813],"class_list":["post-323352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-arrested","tag-daring","tag-drug","tag-led","tag-mafia","tag-members","tag-news","tag-raid","tag-trafficking","tag-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323352"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":323355,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323352\/revisions\/323355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}