Calabrian 'Ndrangheta' boss 'involved in 1990s mafia bombing campaign' held

Rome, July 26 (IANS/AKI) Italian police on Wednesday arrested an alleged Calabrian mafia 'Ndrangheta boss accused of ordering bomb attacks on police in Reggio Calabria in 1994 that killed one officer and gravely injured two others.

Police said the arrest of Rocco Santo Filippone shed new light on the mafia's deadly bombing campaign against the state during the 1990s.

Filipponi, the alleged head of the 'Ndrangheta's Filippone clan was held together with jailed Sicilian mafia boss Giuseppe Graviano, who received an arrest warrant in prison. Both men are accused of ordering the three bomb attacks in Reggio Calabria on January 18, February 1 and December 1, 1994.

Filipponi's arrest, carried out on the orders of anti-mafia prosecutors amid a "vast" police operation involving raids across the country on Wednesday, showed the 'Ndrangheta was involved in the series of bombings that shook Italy in the early-to- mid-1990s, police said.

Previously, Italian authorities had pinned sole responsibility for the attacks on the Sicilian mafia, claiming it was an attempt to stop politicians meddling in its business affairs.

The bombing campaign began with the high-profile 1992 murders of Sicilian anti-mafia magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, and with them eight police officers. Ten people were killed the following year in mainland bombings in Rome, Milan and Florence.

A controversial trial is currently ongoing over an alleged pact between the Italian state and the Sicilian mafia under which the crime syndicate agreed to halt the deadly 1990s bombing campaign in exchange for cushier prison conditions for jailed mafia members.

--IANS/AKI

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