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Cao Pi
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Jun 8, 2010
Italian police arrest 46 mafiosi
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Giovanni Tegano (C) a top mafia boss who was among the country's 30 most dangerous fugitives, is escorted from police headquarters. Tegano, 70, who had been on the run for 17 years, has been sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment for murder, arms trafficking and mafia association. -- PHOTO: AP
ROME (Italy) - ITALIAN police told AFP on Tuesday it had arrested 46 alleged mafiosi for running a cement racket on a major motorway and for several murders carried out decades ago. Two rival clans belonging to the 'Ndrangheta, the mafia syndicate dominating the southern region of Calabria, would force companies working on the Salerno-Reggio Calabria autoroute to purchase cement from them and hire mafia-controlled subcontracting companies. The clans also demanded the companies pay a three percent 'tax' on the total worth of the contracts.
Some of those arrested are also accused of several murders carried out during a mafia war between the two clans in the 1980s and 1990s. 'We had uncovered a similar case in 2007 and we arrested several people at that time, but as the works go ahead, the highway moves further south and other mafia clans take part in the racket,' the head of a police unit in Reggio Calabria, Renato Cortese told AFP. About 500 kilometres long, the highway connects the town of Salerno near Naples to the southern-most tip of the Italian peninsula. The main autoroute in southern Italy, it is renowned for its state of disrepair and traffic congestion. -- AFP
