Mafia drug traffickers were building a submarine to bring cocaine from Colombia to Italy, Italy's anti-Mafia chief said Monday.
Speaking after on his return from the South American country, national anti-Mafia prosecutor Piero Grasso said the Calabrian mafia, known as the 'Nrangheta, was dealing in such huge amounts of drugs that it could afford to have such an expensive mode of transport built.
He said they had chosen a submarine in order to beat coastal radar systems which detect incoming ships.
"The 'Ndrangheta brings in 400 kilos of cocaine a year," Grasso said in an interview on Italian TV.
"The submarine, which was under construction in Colombia, has been impounded".
"They were going to use the sub to elude radar controls".
Grasso said cocaine costs just 3 dollars a gramme in Colombia and had a street value of 50-100 euros per gramme in Italy, depending on the quality. He said Italian and Colombian police were trying to stop the trade in every way, including destroying crops, but efforts needed to be made to stem demand.
"We have to ask ourselves why demand keeps on rising".
Action was needed, he said, to stop people turning to cocaine to make themselves more efficient and productive. Most experts agree the 'Ndrangheta, which specialises in drug smuggling from South America, is now more powerful and more dangerous than Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian mafia.
The Calabrian mob is believed to generate an annual turnover of some 35 billion euros, more than Calabria's entire legal economy.
The Italian government launched an unprecedented campaign against the 'Ndrangheta in the wake of the October 16 murder of top local politician Francesco Fortugno. It bolstered police and prosecution forces in Calabria and appointed a top police officer to lead the murder hunt and try to wrest swathes of the region from the mafia's grip.
The operation led to a series of successes and finally, last week, the arrest of Fortugno's killers.
Police are now using turncoat testimony to try to find out who ordered the murder. Meanwhile the drive to re-establish full state rule continues. Since 1995, 30 town councils have been dissolved because they were deemed to be controlled by the 'Ndrangheta. Last year, dozens of local administrators received threats.
