Italian police arrest 200 in anti-Mafia raids

Charges range from belonging to an organized crime group to money laundering and offenses linked with the award of public works contracts.
The scale of the raids, which also included arrests in the United States, underlined the growing power of the 'Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia that was long overshadowed by the Sicilian Cosa Nostra.
The group has long expanded out of its heartland in the poor southern region of Calabria to play a major role in organized crime throughout Europe and in the international drugs trade from South America.