Latest news 'Ndrangheta member arrested in Wetzikon ZH
A fugitive mafioso has been caught by the police in the canton of Zurich. The Zurich cantonal police arrested the suspected member of the 'Ndrangheta mafia organization in Wetzikon ZH on Friday, as reported by the Keystone-SDA news agency.
28.01.2026, 11:41
28.01.2026, 12:23
SDA
According to the Italian news agency Adnkronos, the man is now in a Swiss prison awaiting extradition to Italy. The 'Ndrangheta originally comes from Calabria.
The wanted man was already wanted in January 2022 on the basis of an arrest warrant issued by the public prosecutor's office in Catanzaro (I) for his role in a criminal mafia organization. In May 2022, he was also targeted in another operation, "Cleopatra", on suspicion of international drug trafficking.
The Zurich cantonal police arrested the man in collaboration with the Federal Office of Police (Fedpol) and following a tip-off from Italian investigators. According to Adnkronos, they arrested the suspect in a residential building in Wetzikon. The authorities had previously located the man through technical investigations, surveillance measures and cross-border observations.
Mafia widespread in Switzerland
The mafioso who has now been caught is probably not an isolated case. Various criminal organizations are active in Switzerland, Fedpol said at the request of Keystone-SDA. Europol has estimated the number of criminal organizations active in Europe at more than 800. "Switzerland has so far been largely spared open violence. However, there is a close network of organized crime in Switzerland with some extremely violent structures," says Fedpol.
The core business of organized crime in Switzerland is therefore drug trafficking. According to Fedpol, a network of underground banking systems, some of which are based in Switzerland, with which cashless payments can be made all over the world and drug shipments can be purchased, forms the backbone of the international wholesale trade in drugs.
Drugs, gambling and human trafficking
The spectrum of organized crime in Switzerland ranges from Italian mafia groups, which are essentially related, to groups from the Balkans, which dominate parts of the local drug market, to groups of Turkish origin, which are particularly dominant in the illegal gambling market, as well as structures from Asia, which are mainly involved in human trafficking.
According to Fedpol, there are also West African or Caribbean groups involved in drug and human trafficking, groups from France and gangs of thieves from Romania. Switzerland is also affected by new phenomena such as the so-called "Mocro-Maffia" from the Netherlands and Belgium, which supply cocaine and blow up ATMs.
According to Fedpol, criminal groups that are not primarily defined by family or ethnicity, but by leisure activities and lifestyle, are also increasingly emerging in this country.
As recently as December, the Federal Council therefore approved a new strategy for the fight against organized crime.
