A New York City pizzeria served as the headquarters to an international drug trafficking ring run by the Italian mafia and its US counterparts, FBI officials have claimed.
Thirteen Italians with alleged links to ‘Ndrangheta — a powerful crime organisation — were taken into custody after a sting in the Italian region of Calabria.
The raid came weeks after New York pizzeria owner’s Gregorio, 58, and Eleonora Gigliotti, 54, were arrested alongside their son Angelo, 34. The Gigliottis own a restaurant in the borough of Queens and are being held in federal custody.
The restaurant, Cucino a Modo Mio (I Cook My Way), was described as the “command centre” for sending drugs to Europe and Calabria in containers labeled for tropical fruit and tubers, said Andrea Grassi, the officer in charge of the operation.
“In the evening, the family ran a good pizzeria. In other hours they were running the drug trade,” Ms Grassi told NBC.
More than $100,000 along with firearms and drugs were seized from the restaurant. The ring alleged has ties to 55kg of cocaine discovered in cassava shipments from Central America to Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware last year.
The Calabrian family allegedly turned to the US Mafia’s Genovese family for financing to invest in the cocaine trade, CBS News reported.
The Gigliottis are currently being held without bail.