Three men who were wanted in connection with an Italian mafia war were arrested on Tuesday morning during three different searches in Belgium.
The men are suspected of a series of murders, attempted murders and other serious crimes between 2015 and 2018, reportedly including arms trade and drugs trafficking.
The police action in Belgium was ordered by the Italian judicial authorities, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office announced. In the same investigation, four suspects were arrested in their homes in Sicily last night.
The three men, who were the subject of a European arrest warrant, were arrested in the Limburg municipality of Maasmechelen, the city of Liège and the city of La Louvière in the Hainaut province.
"During the searches, a weapon and ammunition were seized," the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office said. The Italian and Belgian police raided almost 20 places in both countries, in an investigation into a war between two Sicilian mafia gangs.
Agrigento operazione #poliziadistato e Polizia federale belga ha permesso la cattura di 7 persone ritenute responsabili di duplice tentato omicidio e altri reati. Le indagini concentrate sulla faida che dal 2015 al 2018 ha commesso a Favara e Liegi 5 omicidi e 5 tentati omicidi pic.twitter.com/XegqXV4v67
— Polizia di Stato (@poliziadistato) September 15, 2020
The case includes at least two murders and one attempted murder in Liège, and two murders and a double attempted murder in Favara, a municipality in the Sicilian province of Agrigento.
According to the Italian authorities, there have been five murders and five attempted murders, some of which have never been reported.
Maïthé Chini
The Brussels Times
