More than 1,200 officers involved in dawn raids in and around Palermo, reportedly biggest operation against Cosa Nostra since 1984

Italian police have arrested almost 150 people in a significant operation against the Sicilian mafia in Palermo, areas of which remain in the grip of powerful Cosa Nostra clans.

Warrants were issued against a total of 183 people on Tuesday, 36 of whom were already in custody, for crimes including mafia-type criminal association, attempted murder, extortion, drug trafficking and illegal gambling, police said.

Most of the bosses, released from prison on furlough or for good behaviour, have never disavowed Cosa Nostra

Families of victims killed by the Sicilian mafia have expressed fears that more than 20 senior mobsters released over the last three months may now return to the neighbourhoods they once controlled.

The majority of these bosses, some of whom held leadership roles in the main mafia families of Sicily’s capital, Palermo, have never disavowed Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian mafia, and have always refused to cooperate with the judicial authorities. They have been released on furlough or for good behaviour.

The nun is alleged to have been the conduit between the gang and its associates in prison

A nun was among 25 people arrested in Italy on suspicion of being part of a criminal gang with links to the country’s most powerful mafia network, the ’Ndrangheta.

The nun is alleged to have been the conduit between the gang and its associates in prison, prosecutors in Brescia, northern Italy, said on Thursday.

Marco Raduano broke out of high-security wing of a prison in Sardinia in February 2023

A notorious mafia boss who escaped from a high-security prison in Italy last year using bedsheets has been recaptured in France, according to authorities in both countries.

Marco Raduano, recognized as dangerous on Europol’s list of most wanted criminals, was captured in Bastia on the French island of Corsica, authorities said on Friday.

Specially built courtroom in Calabria heard evidence of ruthless tactics of ’Ndrangheta crime syndicate

An Italian court has convicted and sentenced more than 200 people of crimes including criminal association, extortion and bribery in what has been described as Italy’s largest mafia trial in three decades.

The verdicts mark the end of a three-year “maxi trial” held in a high-security courtroom in the southern Calabria region built specifically to hold up to 350 defendants, accommodate 400 lawyers and hear from the 900 witnesses providing testimony against an extensive network of members belonging to the notorious ’Ndrangheta.

Three sisters who own farm in Mezzojuso say they will appeal after men cleared due to lack of evidence

Three men accused of threatening three Sicilian sisters who claimed to have been targeted by the local mafia have been acquitted due to lack of evidence.

The sisters claimed to be victims of the so-called “cattle mafia”, a group of mobsters accused of driving farmers from their lands with intimidation campaigns in order to obtain EU agricultural subsidies of up to €1,000 a hectare.

Pasquale Bonavota featured on police’s list of most dangerous criminals

Italian authorities have announced the arrest of a top boss of the ’Ndrangheta mafia after he spent almost five years on the run.

Pasquale Bonavota, 49, who featured on the police’s list of most dangerous criminals, had been sought since November 2018 after escaping an arrest warrant for homicide and mafia association issued by a magistrate in Calabria, southern Italy.

Alleged to be a boss of Sicily’s Cosa Nostra mafia, Denaro had been on run for 30 years and was arrested in Palermo

Matteo Messina Denaro, the last “godfather” of the Sicilian mafia and one of the world’s most-wanted criminals, has been arrested in Palermo after 30 years on the run.

Denaro, 60, who has been in hiding since 1993, was apprehended in a private clinic in the Sicilian city.