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Image from a video document distributed by the Italian police press office showing a policeman opening bags seized at the Ndrangheta. AFP PHOTO / ITALIAN CARABINIERI POLICE FORCES

Italian police on Thursday arrested 334 people suspected of links to the powerful Ndrangheta. A deputy is among the suspects arrested.

The Italian police carried out this Thursday a " historic " search against the mafia, the largest since the 1980s and the maxi-trial in Palermo. The powerful Calabrian Ndrangheta was targeted: three hundred and thirty-four people were arrested in the country. Other arrests have been made abroad.

Among the suspects arrested, are the former deputy and senator of Forza Italia Giancarlo Pittelli, the former regional adviser of the Democratic Party Pietro Giamborino, businessmen, a gendarmerie commander, another of the municipal police or even men of law.

Three clans of the powerful Calabrian mafia are thus wiped out after years of investigation which led investigators from north to south of Italy but also in Bulgaria, Switzerland and Germany. Those arrested are accused, depending on the case, of homicide, laundering of dirty money, extortion or even association of criminals. And around 15 million euros in assets have been placed in receivership.

A powerful organization

Last January, a smaller operation had already dealt a heavy blow to the business of the Ndrangheta, business which in Calabria affects all sectors: drugs, weapons, prostitution but also the waste trade, fishing, tourism, gambling and immigration.

Ndrangheta is one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the world, but it remains firmly rooted in Calabria, where regional elections will take place in a month.