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FBI Busts International Mafia Drug Ring

Benjamin Li |
February 11, 2014 | 4:19 p.m. PST

Executive Producer

Drug trafficking. (Google Advanced Search)
Drug trafficking. (Google Advanced Search)
An international drug-trafficking ring operating between American and Italian crime syndicates was uncovered this Tuesday by the FBI and Italian police.

Two dozen arrests were made - 17 in Italy and seven in the U.S. - after a two-year drug bust operation involving an American undercover agent infiltrating the Gambino crime family. 

The Gambino family, a notorious New York based criminal organization, leveraged its connection with Italian mafia 'Ndrangheta to traffic heroin and cocaine under the guise of legitimized logistics firms. The connection was made by Franco Lupoi, who had personal connections and familial ties with members in Gambino and 'Ndrangheta.

The arrests stopped the scheduled shipment from South America to Italy of more than seven million dollars' worth of cocaine hidden inside boxes of pineapples and coconuts.

“The defendant Lupoi sought to use his connections with both ‘Ndrangheta and the Gambino crime family to extend his own criminal reach literally around the globe. Today, thanks to the vigilance and sustained cooperation of the Department of Justice and its law enforcement partners in Italy, the ‘Ndrangheta’s efforts to gain a foothold in New York have been dealt a lasting blow," said United States attorney Loretta E. Lynch, who will be heading the prosecution against the arrested mafia associates.

Read more about it from the FBI.

Reach Executive Producer Benjamin Li here.



 

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