Mafia arrests

ROME - Italian authorities have arrested Pasquale, Paolo and Gaspare Cuntrera, who are believed to be, as Repubblica put it, the Rothschilds of the Mafia's drug empire, writes Patricia Clough.

The three allegedly ran heroin and cocaine and are said to have laundered drug money and invested it in legitimate enterprises. The arrests, following the three men's expulsion from Venezuela, crowned a week of successes in Italy against the Mafia - more than a dozen bosses, killers and dangerous henchmen have been captured.