In a high-security, 1,000-capacity courtroom converted from a call centre, Italy’s largest mafia trial in three decades is under way in Lamezia Terme, Calabria. About 900 witnesses are set to testify against more than 350 defendants, including politicians and officials charged with being members of the ’Ndrangheta, Italy’s most powerful criminal group. In the last decade, hundreds of investigations have asserted how the ’Ndrangheta has laundered billions of euros in the City. A 2019 report from Italy’s Antimafia Investigative Directorate claimed that criminal organisations laundered billions of pounds each year through UK banks. “It includes streamlined extradition arrangements, continued exchange of data for law enforcement purposes and arrangements enabling close and effective cooperation with Europol and Eurojust.

Source: The Guardian April 27, 2021 04:52 UTC