Italian police have arrested dozens of suspected members of the Mafia on the Italian island of Sicily and in Calabria on the tip of Italy’s boot.

In total, the operation was directed against 86 people, 53 of whom were detained, the Carabinieri announced on Tuesday in the eastern Sicilian port city of Messina.

Since 2018, the prosecution has been investigating a Mafia family from the municipality of Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto near Messina.

Its members are suspected of infiltrating the local fruit and vegetable trade, as well as pulling shops and nightclubs into their criminal activity.

The judiciary accuses the suspects of extortion, drug trafficking, corruption in electoral votes, pimping and illegal possession of weapons, among other things.

They also face charges of Mafia association, an offence introduced in the early 1980s because until then the laws were often ineffective against the Mafia in Italy.

Anyone who is part of a group that, for example, commits crimes through intimidation and forces people to keep quiet can go to prison for up to six years.

(dpa/NAN)