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WORLD NEWS Thursday 4 May 2023

Germany, Italy clamp down on Italian mob with

raids, arrests

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER
and NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press
BERLIN (AP) — Police across
Europe arrested dozens of
people, raided homes and
seized millions of euros in
assets on Wednesday, in a
coordinated crackdown
on Italy’s ‘ndrangheta or-
ganized crime syndicate,
one of the world’s most
powerful, extensive and
wealthy drug-trafficking
groups.
The operation, coordinated
by European Union judicial
cooperation agency Euro-
just, aimed to dismantle a
network that includes the
n’drangheta, Colombian
drug producers and para- A police officer gets into a car with an arrested person during a raid on Wednesday, May 3,
military groups, and moves 2023, in Hagen, Germany.
tons of cocaine to Europe Associated Press
and Australia each year. service, according to Ital- backed by helicopters The investigation also
The investigation uncov- ian officials and a Carabin- said arrest warrants were confirmed the enduring
ered how these networks ieri press release. served on 108 people, who strength of a handful of
used ports in Ecuador, Pan- “With today’s coordinated were accused of mafia as- well-known ‘ndrangheta
ama and Brazil to ship the measures across Europe, sociation; possession, pro- clans that operate in the
Colombian drugs to north- law enforcement authori- duction, and trafficking of Calabrian town of San
ern European ports while ties have dealt a serious drugs and weapons; mon- Luca.
also dealing in weapons. blow to the ‘ndrangheta,” ey laundering; and other In Germany, more than
The drug proceeds were German Interior Minister crimes. 1,000 officers searched doz-
then laundered through Nancy Faeser said. “To- One of the key figures in the ens of homes, offices and
restaurants, ice cream day’s raids are one of the network was a former pow- stores in the states of Bavar-
shops and car washes, and largest operations to date erful boss, Rocco Morabito, ia, North Rhine-Westphalia,
money sent back to Co- in the fight against Italian who was arrested in 2021 in Rhineland-Palatinate and
lombian drug producers organized crime.” Brazil after nearly 20 years Thuringia, prosecutors said
via a Chinese wire transfer In Italy, Carabinieri police as a fugitive. in a joint statement. q

U.N.: 258 million people faced acute food insecurity

in 2022

ROME (AP) — More than cause of conflicts, climate cording to a report pub- tónio Guterres said.
a quarter-billion people in change, the effects of the lished Wednesday. While the increase last year
58 countries faced acute COVID-19 pandemic and The Global Report on was due in part to more
food insecurity last year be- Russia’s war in Ukraine, ac- Food Crises, an alliance populations being ana-
of humanitarian organi- lyzed, the report also found
zations founded by the that the severity of the
U.N. and European Union, problem increased as well,
said people faced starva- “highlighting a concerning
tion and death in seven of trend of a deterioration.”
those countries: Somalia, Rein Paulsen, director of
Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, emergencies and resil-
Haiti, Nigeria, South Sudan ience for the U.N. Food
and Yemen. and Agriculture Organiza-
The report found that that tion, said an interplay of
the number of people fac- causes was driving hunger.
ing acute food insecurity They include conflicts, cli-
and requiring urgent food mate shocks, the impact of
aid 258 million had in- the pandemic and conse-
creased for the fourth con- quences of Russia’s war in
Nunay Mohamed, 25, who fled the drought-stricken Lower secutive year, a “stinging Ukraine that has had an im-
Shabelle area, holds her one-year old malnourished child indictment of humanity’s pact on the global trade in
at a makeshift camp for the displaced on the outskirts of failure” to implement U.N. fertilizers, wheat, maize and
Mogadishu, Somalia on June 30, 2022. goals to end world hunger, sunflower oil.q
Associated Press U.N. Secretary-General An-