Australia: Four to be tried on alleged Mafia drugs plot
source: http://bit.ly/6fZlwb
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Four Australians, three of whom are Victorian, will go on trial in an Italian court next month on charges of conspiring with the Calabrian Mafia to import one of Australia’s largest cocaine shipments.
The accused - Nicola Ciconte, 54, of Rowville; Michael Calleja, 51, of Kew; Vincenzo Medici, 45, of Mildura, and Carmelo Loprete, 41, of Adelaide - will be tried in absentia in the small town of Vibo Valentia in the southern region of Calabria on February 10, after the Italian Government failed to extradite them from Australia.
”The four Australians are being tried as fugitives,” senior anti-Mafia prosecutor Salvatore Curcio told The Age exclusively. ”They will not be there, but if they have an interest in this trial they should come to Italy,” he said.
Security at the trial is expected to be extra tight after a bomb attack on a court building in the nearby city of Reggio Calabria a week ago.
The accused - Nicola Ciconte, 54, of Rowville; Michael Calleja, 51, of Kew; Vincenzo Medici, 45, of Mildura, and Carmelo Loprete, 41, of Adelaide - will be tried in absentia in the small town of Vibo Valentia in the southern region of Calabria on February 10, after the Italian Government failed to extradite them from Australia.
”The four Australians are being tried as fugitives,” senior anti-Mafia prosecutor Salvatore Curcio told The Age exclusively. ”They will not be there, but if they have an interest in this trial they should come to Italy,” he said.
Security at the trial is expected to be extra tight after a bomb attack on a court building in the nearby city of Reggio Calabria a week ago.
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