Italian police are launching a series of raids aimed at Mafia clans operating in and around the Sicilian capital Palermo.
More than 1,200 officers have participated in the operation, which the military force of Carabiniers said it was aimed at “dismantling” the mafia in the area.
The raids, the largest for several years, have been seen as an offer by the Italian authorities to stop the mafia, which restores its governing body known as the dome.
A number of mafia bosses have been released from prison in recent months of appeal. But investigators say those who are still behind bars have used encrypted mobile phones to continue their activities.
They also found that Cosa Nostra's mafia of Sicily has updated the practices of its “founding fathers” and no longer needs to meet personally.
A local leader had managed to stay in the hiding and still to rule over organized crime in his local area, police explained.
For more than 100 years, the famous Sicily mafia has been involved in local cities and cities, blackmailing businesses through money for protection and making big drug trafficking profits.
In the early 1990s, crusader prosecutors of anti-mafia were killed as they tried to retreat.
Then in 1993, the so -called bosses of the bosses, Salvatore, “Toto”, was arrested in Palermo, and in 2023 the notorious Mafia Messina Messina Denaro was detained while visiting a local clinic.
Although many mafia is in prison, Carabiniers said they were able to smuggle small mobile phones in their cells in an attempt to continue their criminal activities.
Police said they had learned about the encrypted chats of the mafia by installing devices for listening to the homes and vehicles of the suspected homes. However, they are not yet thought to have cracked encryption, so their ability to eavesdrop is limited.
According to La Repubblica, police are still trying to pursue chat members who are nicknamed such as Robert de Niro and a spider man.
The raids on Tuesday began before dawn, targeting clans in Palermo, from Thomaso Natal in the northern part of the city to the Nuva Porta in the center.
Police said their investigation has covered a number of suspects, from Mafia Association and drug trafficking to attempted murder and armed crime.
Several bosses who have already been released from prison after serving sentences are among the arrested.
These are reported that Tomaso Lo Prestti, who spent 12 years in prison before his release in 2023.
Last year, there was a protest when he appeared, Lo Prestie celebrated his silver wedding anniversary in Palermo Church, where anti-Mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone was buried.