Cavalli di razza and the Molè clan (2021–2024)

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In November 2021 the DDA of Milan, together with prosecutors in Florence and Reggio Calabria, ordered more than one hundred arrests in the operation known as Cavalli di razza. Fifty-four arrests concerned the Lombard–Swiss branch, 36 the province of Como, and two suspects were arrested in Lugano. The investigators seized one tonne of cocaine across all branches of the investigation, of which more than 30 kilograms in the cantons of Ticino, Zurich and St. Gallen. Members of the locale of Fino Mornasco near Como were extradited from Switzerland, and weapons sourced in Switzerland had been financed with drug proceeds.¹ According to the Swiss press, the same Fino Mornasco unit had earlier been active in Chiasso and Mendrisio. Courts in Milan and Como convicted 42 defendants to a total of 320 years. In January 2024 a Calabrian court passed the first twenty sentences in the main branch, with a maximum of twenty years for a young leader of the Molè clan of Gioia Tauro.² A related coordinated action of 16 November 2021 led to six arrests in Switzerland, two of them in Ticino, two in St. Gallen and one each in Graubünden and Zurich, with St. Gallen described as a logistical base for drug trafficking.³

Date Case Ticino link Outcome 2003–2004 Lugano lawyer Laundering for 14 years, final 'Ndrangheta and Cosa Nostra 2009 Roscoba Lugano fiduciary, CHF 46 Conviction m (mismanagement, forgery) 2009 Cigarette Trial in Bellinzona 2 convicted, 7 smuggling acquitted 29.12.2017 Vacallo Trusted man, Chiasso 5.5 and 3 years official 2020–2026 Imponimento Grancia, TPF trial Pending in Switzerland 2021–2024 Cavalli di Arrests in Lugano Convictions in Italy razza

Notes

"'Ndrangheta, operazione Cavalli di razza", laRegione, 2 February 2022, https://www.laregione.ch/1563457. ↩
"Venti condanne nell'operazione Cavalli di razza", laRegione, 7 January 2024, https://www.laregione.ch/estero/confine/1724616/servizi. ↩
"Blitz antimafia, 6 arresti in Svizzera", RSI, 16 November 2021, https://www.rsi.ch/info/svizzera/Blitz-antimafia-6-arresti-in-Svizzera--1278868.html. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of August 2025.

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Dr Alexander Ressos, TEP

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Cavalli di razza and the Molè clan (2021–2024)

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