Thousands of Italian mafia members ‘pulling strings’ in Australia, police warn

ANKARA

More than 50 Italian organized crime clans, including the ‘Ndrangheta, with thousands of members are operating in Australia, the country’s police warned on Tuesday.

These groups work in league with their Italian partners and are “washing billions of dollars a year through the Australian economy,” controlling the illegal drugs trade, and perpetuating violence through local affiliates, according to Nigel Ryan, assistant commissioner of the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

He said the AFP plans to target these organized crime groups “by attacking their finances, communications and operations.”

“We have about 51 Italian organized crime clans in Australia. We have identified 14 confirmed ‘Ndrangheta clans across Australia, involving thousands of members,” said Ryan.

“The ‘Ndrangheta are not just an Australian problem – they are a global problem and they are responsible for trafficking 70% of the world’s cocaine. In Australia, they are also responsible for cannabis and methamphetamine trafficking.”

The ‘Ndrangheta, according to Ryan, “are flooding Australia with illicit drugs and are pulling the strings of Australian outlaw motorcycle gangs” that he said were responsible for “some of the most significant violence” in the country.

Operation Ironside, a massive three-year sting operation led by the AFP, led to 383 alleged offenders being charged with 2,340 offences.

The AFP and the US’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) tricked underworld figures into communicating via an encrypted app called ANoM.

“During Operation Ironside, law enforcement charged a number of ‘Ndrangheta members, some who were taking their orders from bosses in Calabria,” Ryan said.

He said invaluable intelligence obtained through the ANoM sting was helping “remove the cloak of secrecy that has allowed members of the ‘Ndrangeta to operate in Australia with impunity,” but admitted that taking down the group remains a daunting challenge.

“They have been able to stay under the radar by living modest lives, in modest homes. They mix their illegitimate money with money from their legitimate construction, agricultural or catering businesses, and all of this makes it more difficult to not only identify criminality but to prove it,” he explained.

Ryan said the AFP will particularly focus on “dismantling the money laundering organizations … (and) continue to target the communications platforms being used to plan their criminality.”

An AFP statement also cited research from the University of New South Wales’ National Drug and Alcohol Research Center, which recorded more than 1800 drug-induced deaths in Australia in 2020, the highest annual figure since 1997.

* Writing by Islamuddin Sajid​​​​​​​

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