Seventeen 'Ndrangheta mobsters found guilty, including capos

Sentences of up to 27 years in prison

(ANSA) - Reggio Calabria, May 7 - A local court handed down prison sentences ranging from three to 27 years each Wednesday to 17 members of a leading clan of the 'Ndrangheta, the vicious Calabria-based mafia.

Six of the 17, including Giuseppe De Stefano, Pasquale 'the Supreme' Condello, and his cousin Domenico Condello, received the heaviest sentences of 20 to 27 years each, bringing the trial against the clan that started three years ago to a climax. The judges of the Reggio Calabria Tribunal issued the sentences after deliberating for five days. The 17 were convicted on charges including mafia association, aggravated and attempted extortion, threats and aggression.

The Tribunal found that Di Stefano, son of the murdered boss Paolo De Stefano, had been head of the 'Ndrangheta in Reggio Calabria, sentencing him to 27 years in prison. Domenico Condello and Francesco Bertuca, the gang leader in the sun-drenched port town of Villa San Giovanni, received terms of 23 years each. Pasquale Condello, Giovanni Tegano and Pasquale Libri, described by prosecutors as the "high command" of the 'Ndrangheta in the mafia-infested port city of Reggio Calabria together with Di Stefano, received terms of 20 years each. Among lesser sentences Rocco Palermo, a medical doctor, received a four-year prison term. With its stranglehold on the European cocaine trade, the 'Ndrangheta is considered the most powerful of Italy's organized-crime groups.