Police: Italy’s mafias team up to run wholesale produce markets; honeymooner among the nabbed

Police: Italy mafias run produce markets

ROME — Anti-mafia police say they have broken up an unusual alliance of Italy’s three main crime syndicates controlling wholesale produce markets, including price fixing.

Police said they were arresting dozens of suspects Monday, including a suspected mobster who had just disembarked at Naples’ port from a honeymoon cruise.

Gen. Antonio Girone of Italy’s anti-Mafia DIA squad says the Sicilian Mafia, the Calabrian ‘ndrangheta crime syndicate and the Naples-area Camorra syndicate dropped traditional rivalries to join forces in running fruit and vegetable wholesale markets in central and southern Italy.

Authorities said the mobsters fixed high prices, at the expense of consumers, and decided which trucking companies transported the produce, and illegal weapons.