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![Mafia godfather Rocco Anello even had his own parking space in Muri AG.]()
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Mafia godfather Rocco Anello even had his own parking space in Muri AG.
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keystone
![This restaurant in Muri served the group as a transhipment point for its own business.]()
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This restaurant in Muri served the group as a transhipment point for its own business.
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Zvg
![Last Tuesday the mafiosi were put out of business.]()
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Last Tuesday the mafiosi were put out of business.
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![Mafia godfather Rocco Anello has often been in jail.]()
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Mafia godfather Rocco Anello has often been in jail.
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Investigators struck in the early morning hours of Tuesday. Several police cars drove up to a pizzeria in the middle of Muri AG. As a result of the large-scale action At least one person was arrested and taken to Bern by the Argus special unit (LOOK reported).
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The raid is the result of Operation Imponimento. For four years, hundreds of specialists from Switzerland and Italy have investigated the Calabrian mafia clan around the ‘Ndrangheta godfather Rocco Anello (59). By the time it hit organized crime this week, the Anello file had grown to 3,500 pages. The content shows: The mafiosi had built up a functioning network in Switzerland.
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Godfather-son was allowed to use the parking lot for motorbike shops
From the documents that the “Sunday Newspaper” , it is clear that the clan in Switzerland made money primarily from drug and arms deals. In addition to coke and marijuana, the entry into the heroin business was apparently also planned. During house searches, several assault rifles, pistols and a large amount of ammunition were also seized.
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The file also shows how important the pizzeria in Muri was to the clan’s illegal business. Rocco Anello is said to have reserved a parking space in the local garage – for 200 euros a month. As long as the Big Boss was in Calabria, his son Rocco junior was allowed to use the space and park Töffs there for his motorcycle trade.
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Stolen assault rifle wrapped in a Coop and a Volg bag
The fact that the investigators found out about the gangsters in Switzerland is largely due to a so-called Pentito. This is how ex-mafiosi are called, who show remorse and are ready to unpack about the organization.
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The Federal Prosecutor’s Office then targeted a covert investigator in the restaurant in Muri, as the “SonntagsZeitung” writes. This V-man with the code name Miguel managed to extract important information from the mafiosi – and to be initiated into their business. For example, 53-year-old contractor Francesco B. * is said to have sold another camouflaged investigator an assault rifle from the Swiss army for CHF 2,000, that was reported stolen – wrapped in a Coop and a Volg bag.
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Cash transportation to Calabria – every week
Francesco B. obviously had the best connection right to the top. He is said to have visited Rocco Anello at Christmas – “provided he wasn’t in prison right now,” as it says in the file. And: Anello is said to have gladly returned the favor of B. and paid him, for example, half the cost of celebrating his 50th birthday.
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Expenses that Anello could afford. In addition to weapons, the Mafia members primarily smuggled money from Switzerland into Italy. Every week, people with the maximum allowed amount of CHF 10,000 traveled across the border in cash. The goal was always the same: the small town of Filadelfia in Calabria, home of the Anello clan, over 1400 kilometers from Muri. (cat)
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Fedpol anticipates around 400 mafiosi in SwitzerlandMuch more Mafia members are likely to live in Switzerland than previously thought. The Federal Office of Police (Fedpol) has confirmed an estimate by Italian law enforcement officers and experts that around 400 Mafia members live in Switzerland.
The «NZZ on Sunday» Quoted statements from experts from Italy that there are around 20 mafia cells with 400 actors in Switzerland. As a Fedpol spokesman told the Keystone-SDA news agency, there could be more mafia actors in Germany because “not everything” is seen.
Switzerland as a retreat
In the Fedpol annual report 2019, it was said that there were around 100 members, mostly from the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta, but also the Sicilian Cosa Nostra and the Neapolitan Camorra, who were in Switzerland.
According to the Fedpol, members of the mafia are mainly located in the border cantons of Ticino, Graubünden and Valais, as well as in urban centers and agglomerations. “You have been in Switzerland for years, are unobtrusive and well integrated and have a job.” Switzerland is often seen as a retreat in the heart of Europe, which you can quickly leave. (SDA)
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