A Catholic nun was arrested by Italian police on Thursday for bringing messages for the mafia to prisoners, police said in a news statement.
Sister Anna Donelli acted on several occasions as an intermediary between the Mafia and prisoners, according to the Italian news media. The criminal group used “the support of trusted and unsuspected people,” the police statement said, and persuaded the nun to take “advantage of the spiritual assignment” in which she had free access to the prison and inmates to bring the messages.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office of Brescia started a sweeping investigation in September 2020 that led to the arrest of Donelli and 24 others. Police also arrested on Thursday residents in the provinces of Brescia, Milan, Reggio Calabria, Como, Lecco, Varese, Viterbo, and in Spain.
During the massive operation police seized assets of over 1,800,000 euros and arrested two politicians. The police did not release the names of the politicians but said their arrests showed the ongoing links between the powerful mafia and elected officials.
Police said the suspects engaged in mafia activities such as extortion, arms and drug trafficking, receiving stolen goods, usury and political-mafia electoral exchange. Suspects were linked to a criminal association of ‘ndrangheta origin, originally from Sant’Eufemia d’Aspromonte (RC), based for years in the Brescia province and then linked to the “Alvaro” gang.
Italian authorities have worked to crack down on mafia activities for decades — often to barely scratch the surface of the seemingly endless flow of mafia activity within the country. Last year Italian courts convicted 207 people and sentenced them to a combined 2,100 years in prison on charges related to their membership in Italy’s ‘ndrangheta organized crime syndicate.
In March Italy decided to expand a controversial program to remove children from their mafia families to break the cycle of criminal behavior being passed down to new generations.
