Deploying more than 400 personnel, the operation, named ‘Karpanthos’, was led by prosecutor Nicola Gratteri, one of Italy’s best-known anti-Mafia investigators.

Police said 38 people have been jailed, six put under house arrest and eight given orders not to leave their home towns.

Investigators have identified various criminal activities tied to the ‘Ndrangheta, including large-scale drug trafficking, money laundering and extortion.

Italy’s ‘Ndrangheta has supplanted Sicily’s Cosa Nostra as the country’s most powerful mafia organisation, and has spread across Europe and the rest of the world.