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The
case involves the 'Ndrangheta clan, which is based in Calabria,
the toe of Italy's boot, and is considered by prosecutors to be
the most powerful mafia group in the country, easily eclipsing
the more famous Cosa Nostra gang in Sicily.
The fast-track trial, held over the weekend, involved 91
defendants and allowed those convicted to have their sentences
reduced by a third.
Some of those shown by prosecutors to be key 'Ndrangheta members
were handed jail sentences of up to 20 years.
Chief prosecutor Nicola Gratteri said the first sentencing
provided a basis for the wider proceedings involving a further
300 suspects which started in January in the Calabrian city of
Lamezia Terme.
The mobsters face charges including extortion, drug trafficking
and theft.
"We continue our work with serenity and the firmness needed for
such an important trial," said Gratteri, one of the country's
most respected anti-mafia magistrates.
He added that most of the 19 people acquitted in the trial were
marginal suspects.
The last time Italy tried hundreds of alleged mafiosi
simultaneously was in 1986 in the Sicilian city of Palermo, a
case which represented a turning-point in the fight against Cosa
Nostra and marked the beginning of the group's sharp decline.
The Calabrian trial involves a large number of white-collar
workers and does not target the top hierarchies of the 'Ndrangheta
clans in the way the Palermo case did.
(Reporting by Angelo Amante, editing by Ed Osmond)
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