Police made over 50 arrests on Wednesday in an operation which temporarily blocked the colonisation of the green central Italian region of Umbria by southern mafias.
Prosecutors in the Umbrian capital of Perugia said the Campania-based Camorra and the Calabria-based 'Ndrangheta had joined forces to set up drug trafficking, money laundering and extortion operations in the central region.
''We are looking at an attempt at the criminal colonisation of Umbria, where the local economy has been infiltrated by elements of these crime syndicates,'' commented National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor Piero Grasso.
The arrests, mostly in Calabria and Umbria, included that of Pasquale Maria Tripodi, who was until Tuesday the tourism chief in the Calabrian regional government.
Tripodi is accused of corruption in connection with the approval of a hydro-electric plant in Calabria.
A member of the centrist Udeur party, he was ejected from the centre-left regional government this week in the wake of his party's abandonment of the centre-left national government of Romano Prodi.
The other 50-odd people for whom arrest warrants were issued were accused of crimes such as drug trafficking, money laundering, extortion and involvement in car-theft rings and shady construction projects.
General Giampaolo Ganzer, of the Carabinieri's ROS special operations unit, said that in the criminal joint venture the Camorra handled drug trafficking and the 'Ndrangheta dealt with the business side.
He said the 'Ndrangheta especially had gradually taken control of several businesses in Umbria, thus equipping itself with the cover for further illegal operations.
Tuesday's police operation will ensure that the Umbrian economy can continue to develop in an ''ordered and legitimate'' way, without mafia interference, at least for the time being, Perugia chief prosecutor Nicola Miriano said.
The arrests were expected to give investigators a clear view of all the avenues explored by the southern clans in Umbria and other northern and central regions.
''This operation has many investigative angles. There are all the elements to uncover the full scope of the mafia system set up to make money and push drugs in a fairly virgin region,'' said Grasso.
The national anti-mafia prosecutor said mobsters had plenty of ideas for investing the money they earned through drugs and extortion.
Among them, he cited investments in infrastructure, such as hydroelectric power stations in Calabria and holiday villages on the southern region's Gelsomino coast.
