Italian police have made 67 arrests and seized some €250 million worth of property in an operation against the powerful ‘Ndrangheta mafia, a statement said yesterday.

The multi-pronged operation “wiped out” a local clan based in the southern Calabrian town of Corigliano Calabro, the statement said.

Police acting on tips from turncoats carried out raids in Calabria, northern Lombardy and other regions, rounding up suspects accused of extortion, usury and drug trafficking.

The investigation unveiled systematic shakedowns of small business owners, the ANSA news agency reported.

The swoop came after Italian police earlier this month dealt another blow to the ‘Ndrangheta, arresting the syndicate’s top boss along with 300 others and seizing tens of millions of euros in assets.

In recent years the ‘Ndrangheta has become the largest and most feared of Italy’s four main organised crime syndicates, which include the Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra, the Camorra in the southern Naples area and the smaller Sacra Corona Unita in the southeastern region of Apulia.

The ‘Ndrangheta shot to international notoriety in 2007 with the execution-style killings of six clan members in the German city of Duisburg on August 15, 2007.

They are considered the main broker in international cocaine traffic, with a virtual monopoly of cocaine coming from Colombia.

The syndicate reinvests and recycles money from the drug trade into legitimate investments in northern Italy and abroad.