Italian police arrest 19 in swap sting

ROME: Italian police on Thursday arrested 19 people including the head of Calabria’s regional council in an anti-mafia sting against the powerful ‘Ndrangheta organised crime group.

Investigators say the Grande Aracri clan, based in the southern Italian region but also active in pockets of the north and abroad, was laundering dirty money through a chain of 23 pharmacies. Regional council chief Domenico Tallini, 68, is accused of cutting through the red tape required to set up the pharmacies in exchange for votes in the 2014 regional elections, police said in a statement. Tallini, who belongs to ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, was placed under house arrest.