ROME, Italy - On a hot night in early July, the southern Italian region of Calabria woke to the roar of helicopters and the wail of police sirens.

Shrouded in darkness, more than a thousand policemen in full military gear swept the streets of 19 towns on the very toe of Italy’s boot, entering neighborhoods where they seldom go.

(Photo: Eneas De Troya, CC-BY 2.0)

Italian police say the Sicilian Mafia Cosa Nostra is allegedly collaborating with a Nigerian organized criminal group called the Vikings, which is now controlling drug and prostitution rings in Palermo, media reported Wednesday.

Federal authorities arrested more than two dozen alleged members of a Russian gang involved inrobbing, racketeering, selling narcotics, and other crimes, including even stealing chocolate, theU.S. Department of Justice announcedWednesday.

Italian, Spanish and Dutch police arrested Wednesday 22 out of 65 suspected members of a criminal ring that smuggled hashish from Morocco to The Netherlands and Italy via Spain.

Italian police arrested 12 suspects of migrant and cigarette smuggling who may have planned to bring migrants with jihadist links to Europe, media reported Tuesday.

Calabria’s Carabinieri Military police arrested Friday morning a ‘ndrangheta drug lord they were searching the last 23 years for.

Hundreds of members of the European Parliament are potentially misusing EU funds meant to pay for offices in their home country, but at least 249 of these offices either do not exist or are nowhere to be found, according to an investigation by 'Journalists of the MEPs Project' published Wednesday. 

Italian police said Monday that in a crackdown on a mafia gang they arrested 14 people and took control over several businesses, including four management offices of the Lidl supermarket chain.

Italian authorities said Monday they arrested 68 suspected members of a ‘Ndrangheta mafia group that stole food from migrants at Italy’s largest reception center, siphoning off over 30 million euros in state funds.

Rocco Barbaro, a relevant ‘Ndrangheta boss known as "u’ sparitu" (the disappeared), was caught in his daughter’s flat while fugitive in his hometown Platì, a small village in Calabria. He was having lunch with the family. Platì is a stronghold of ‘Ndrangheta clans, a safe haven for mafiosi.

Italian authorities said Thursday they arrested a member of a ‘Ndragheta-affiliated family of drug dealers, who is wanted since 2015 and was thought to be hiding in Brazil.

An Italian hardcore football fanatic who allegedly jumped to his death last July may have been murdered for helping the secret services to investigate mafia infiltration into Juventus fandom, his ex-wife told La Repubblica Monday.

Following 39 arrests across 15 countries, Spanish police announced Wednesday that they have dismantled an international child porn ring that distributed material via WhatsApp.

Seven Albanian drug trafficking suspects were arrested after authorities chased their speedboat for nearly 22 hours across the Mediterranean Sea in a movie-like operation involving high speed boats, helicopters and planes.

Italian authorities captured in Florence Sunday a fugitive Mexican former-governor charged with drug smuggling, bank fraud, racketeering and money laundering, Mexico’s attorney general’s office announced.

A money-laundering trial set to begin in mid-April in Italy has shed light on a hidden offshore operation that may have contributed to a major human rights crackdown in Azerbaijan in 2013.

EPP Political Assembly, Marseille 2011 - Luca Volontè (Wikimedia Commons)

Italian authorities seized on Monday assets worth €20 million from a family accused of extortions, racketeering and counterfeiting cigarettes and oil in the city of Naples.

An Italian court sentenced on Wednesday two generations of a Ndrangheta-linked family to a total of more than 52 years in prison for running an illegal on-line gambling empire worth over US$ 65 million.

Police in Italy arrested Tuesday the boss of a Sicilian mafia family and five of his aids for extortion and for forcing people —  often at gunpoint —  to vote in elections for a candidate close to the organization.

Italian military police detained Tuesday 46 suspected members of one of the most powerful groups of the Camorra crime network for mafia association, extortion, drug trafficking and handling of stolen goods, among other crimes.