Pope Benedict XVI has condemned
Italy's "ferocious" 'Ndrangheta
mafiaduring a visit to the group's heartland in Calabria, days after police seized a suspected mob shipment of more than half a tonne of cocaine at a local port.
Addressing 40,000 people at a disused industrial site in Lamezia Terme, the pope said the crime families in Calabria, in the toe of Italy, were "tearing at the social fabric" in a region "which seems to be in a constant state of emergency".
In a region noted for chronic unemployment, poor healthcare and corruption, the 'Ndrangheta has used its drug connections with Colombia and its quiet stranglehold on many businesses in northern Italy to overtake Sicily's Cosa Nostra and rack up revenue of €44bn (£37bn) a year, according to a 2008 study.
The pope's denouncement was welcomed by Father Giacomo Panizza, a Roman Catholic priest who works with the disabled in Calabria and has been forced to travel with a police escort after he clashed with local crime bosses.
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