June 11, 2002	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 29, 1423

ROME, June 10: Some 50 people across Europe were arrested and 150 were under investigation as part of a crackdown on international money-laundering and the Russian Mafia, Italian police said on Monday.

Italian authorities co-ordinated the crackdown, code-named Operation Spiderweb, with French, Swiss and German investigators as well as the FBI. They suspect the criminal groups trafficked arms, drugs and people.

“We got our hands on an international organisation with a Russian base which has links to European organised crime and in order to reinvest its money used a complex money-laundering web,” said Francesco Gratteri, head of the special police department that coordinates international operations.

He said 50 arrests had been made in overnight sweeps in the countries involved — 20 of them in Italy. Police had initially said that all 50 arrests were made in Italy.

“This is the biggest Italian investigation into money-laundering by organised crime in the former Soviet Union,” another investigator told reporters.

Investigators said the money originated in Russia and was laundered in the United States before being returned to Europe.—Reuters