Italy: Travel alerts for the week of October 17, 2010

(October 17, 2010)
Italian authorities plan to send the army to the southern region of Calabria to combat the powerful 'Ndrangheta Mafia.

The request for the military was made a day after a bazooka was discovered near a courthouse in the city of Reggio Calabria, in what police said was a death threat by the 'Ndrangheta, thought to have become more powerful than the Sicilian mafia, against a senior prosecutor.

Police believe that this criminal network is more powerful than the Sicilian Mafia and extends its operations as far as Australia and the United States. The army will not be patrolling the streets but protecting the judiciary. This is the first army deployment against the Mafia since 500 elite soldiers were sent to neighboring Campania in 2008.