Italian police have captured a senior member of the Camorra organized crime group after a 15-year manhunt, officials announced Tuesday.

Italian authorities have seized €1.5 billion ($US 1.7 billion) in assets from the heirs of a late businessman who had allegedly built his wealth on funds provided by Sicily’s notorious Cosa Nostra organized crime group, the country’s Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate (DIA) announced Saturday.

Italian police arrested on Thursday dozens of suspected gang members who transported drugs in car compartments that would pop open only after a secret combination of actions, like  lowering the sun visor while putting the gear shift in neutral, switching off the air conditioning or putting it in reverse.

Police arrested 24 suspected Ndrangheta associates and seized 10 million euros (US$11.3 million) in assets following an investigation that uncovered shady health care industry arrangements between politicians and a local mafia clan, La Repubblica reported Monday.

Italian authorities arrested 14 alleged members of a Camorra clan for trafficking crack, cocaine and hashish along the coast near Naples. Three days earlier, Corriere del Mezzogiorno reported that camorristi put a bounty on a drug-sniffing police dog.

Italian authorities seized assets worth €55 million (US$63 million) and arrested an Italian suspect while trying to take down a Maltese fuel smuggling network, the Malta Independent reported on Sunday.

Supported by Europol, French and Italian police arrested 23 individuals and dismantled two criminal networks suspected of producing and distributing counterfeit banknotes that caused US$5.1 million in damages, a Europol press release said on Tuesday. 

Hundreds of officers of Italy’s military police force arrested 72 alleged Naples mafia members who are suspected of having sold cocaine all over the Naples area, mainly near churches, schools and arcades, Napoli Today reported on Monday.

Italian authorities arrested 14 alleged members of Naples’ mafia, the Camorra, who are suspected of having sold drugs using cameras and gun-toting pushers to control their turf, Italian media reported Monday.

Heaven and the Underworld Meet at a Catholic festival in the mountains of Calabria.

Festival of the Madonna di Polsi by Antonio Lemma

Twenty-five years after the mafia murdered a Italian priest who challenged their hold in Palermo, Pope Francis called on the city’s mafiosi to repent of their murderous ways.

Italian police announced on Saturday that they arrested one of the most wanted criminals, a Calabrian mafia boss, who was hiding from authorities for over three years after having been sentenced to 20 years in prison for drug trafficking.

Italian anti-mafia officers arrested on Tuesday over 30 suspected mobsters thanks to their wives who had decided their children deserve the chance to lead a crime-free life.

An Italian national with ties to Canadian chapters of the ‘Ndrangheta mafia has been found guilty of corruption and sentenced to 30 years in prison in Italy, The Toronto Star reported Wednesday.

Financial police in Rome said they arrested on Tuesday Gian Luca Apolloni, a purported top-level “fixer” named in the Panama Papers, as well as entrepreneur Roberto Lagana on charges of aggravated tax fraud.

More than 25,000 cultural and archaeological artifacts worth a total of € 40 million (US$46.7 million) were seized from 40 houses in Italy, Germany, UK, and Spain on Wednesday, Europol reported.

Italy plans to crack down on the production and sale of counterfeit shoes, bags, clothes and other items in and around the country’s beaches, which provide up to US$26 billion in annual turnover for organized criminal groups, The Local reported Monday.

A villa seized from a Camorra Mafia boss near Naples will be converted into a shelter for LGBT Italians and migrants fleeing violent discrimination, The Localreported Wednesday.

A judge sent the brother of a jailed mafia boss behind bars for six years for beating a reporter and his cameraman during a television interview, ANSA reported on Monday.

Italian police arrested 102 suspects on Monday after a 12-year investigation into mafia families that allegedly rule Puglia region on Italy’s southeast coast and are responsible for large-scale drug trafficking from the Balkans.