Police arrested over 170 people Tuesday in a massive operation targeting two of the main drug clans of the Neapolitan Mafia.
Police said the swoop was the result of an investigation into the Giuliano and Mazzarella clans, which are suspected of controlling much of the drugs trade in central Naples.
"Today's operation is important because it hits the clans' greatest source of income," said Tommaso Pellegrino, a Green Party MP and secretary of Parliament's Anti-Mafia Committee.
"You have to impoverish the crime world to defeat it".
In some cases whole families were detained in raids carried out by around 1,000 officers in Naples and the surrounding province, police sources said.
The operation also showed that women are increasingly assuming high-ranking positions in organized crime gangs, taking the places of incarcerated male mobsters. A number of the people arrested on Tuesday were women suspected of being bosses of the local Mafia or Camorra operations.
The probe kicked off in 2002 when a lead member of the Giuliano clan, Luigi Giuliano, was arrested and began cooperating with prosecutors.
Among the top figures nabbed Tuesday were Luigi Giuliano's daughter Marianna and her husband Michele Mazzarella.
The couple's marriage cemented a pact between the two gangs a number of years ago.
But the alliance broke down and turned into a feud when Luigi Giuliano and other top members of his clan became state informants.
"It is a massive blow for the Giuliano and Mazzarella Camorra clans, which are among the most active in the despicable drugs business," said Antonio Bassolino, the Campania regional government president and a former mayor of Naples.
"Those who intend to get rich with violence, exploitation and injustice should know that the state will fight them and their culture of death without respite".
Justice Minister Clemente Mastella congratulated the police and prosecutors for their "brilliant" work.
Police said Naples courts issued 199 arrest warrants requested by prosecutors, 173 of which have been acted on, although some of the suspects were already in detention for other charges.
The Camorra has been in the media spotlight over the past 12 months due to a sharp rise in the number of Mafia-linked murders in Naples and the surrounding province.
More than 75 Camorra-related killings were reported in 2006.
The crime surge led the government to take emergency action, with over 1,000 police and other law-and-order officials sent to boost the 13,250-strong local police force.
Last autumn there were even calls for the army to be sent in to bring the situation under control.
