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Rome: The biggest mafia trial in more than 30 years is beginning this week when more than 350 alleged mobsters and their collaborators face justice in a huge, purpose-built courtroom in southern Italy.
On trial will be members of the Ndrangheta, a network of clans based in Calabria, in the toe of the Italian boot.
It is regarded as the most powerful of Italy s mafia organisations, having surpassed the more famous Cosa Nostra of Sicily.
The Ndrangheta mafia, based in Calabria, are considered much more powerful than the Cosa Nostra.
Credit:AP It s the most dangerous and it is present in every continent, said Nicola Gratteri, a leading prosecutor in the trial who has lived under police protection for 30 years. And it is the richest because it has a virtual monopoly on the importation of cocaine into Europe, he said, while guarded by three plain-clothes police officers wearing black balaclavas to hide their identity.