Further Frauenfeld ’Ndrangheta arrests

Carabinieri officers completed the arrests in Italy Keystone

Italian police have detained five further members of a mafia gang with suspected links to criminal activity in Frauenfeld, canton Thurgau. The leader of the Calabrian Giffone family mob is reportedly one of those arrested in Italy.

The Swiss and Italian authorities have been cooperating closely as part of “Operation Helvetica” in an effort to break the crime ring that operates in both countries. Raids in August and November had already netted dozens of people suspected of money laundering, usury, extortion and corruption.

The Giffone family is reportedly closely linked to the Fabrizia clan, some of whose members live and operate in Frauenfeld, which is located north of Zurich. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Bern has lodged criminal proceedings against the Giffone boss who was arrested on Friday.

The Swiss-based mafia operations are thought to date back some 40 years and were exposed by a secretly filmed recording of a meeting in the summer. Their suspected criminal activities also included drugs and gun running offences.

But it is thought that most of the illegal activities by the mobsters were carried out in Italy, spreading across Milan, Lombardy, Sicily and Verona.