Australian police say 'thousands' of Mafia members in the country

Thousands of members of the notorious 'Ndrangheta Mafia from the southern Italian region of Calabria are believed to be operating in Australia, federal police said on Tuesday.

Australian Federal Police (AFP) assistant commissioner Nigel Ryan detailed the influence of Italian organized crime in Australia, a picture Australian law enforcement was able to put together over the past year thanks in part to a collaboration with Italian authorities.

Ryan told journalists that 'Ndrangheta members had been "able to stay under the radar by living modest lives in modest homes" for decades while laundering illegitimate wealth through their legitimate businesses.

"The 'Ndrangheta are not just an Australian problem – they are a global problem. They are responsible for [trafficking] 70 to 80% of the world's cocaine, and they are flooding Australia with illicit drugs," Ryan told reporters.

"We believe we have about 51 Italian organized crime clans in Australia, and to date we have confirmed at least 14 of these as being 'Ndrangheta, which we believe have thousands of members in Australia," Ryan said, vowing to "cut off the head and tail of organized crime."

Operation Ironside is part of the global Operation Trojan Shield, led by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in more than a dozen countries.

A closed encrypted service called AN0M was created, where criminals unknowingly communicated with each other on the system operated by FBI agents.

The AFP said that 383 alleged offenders had been charged with 2,340 offences in Australia, and that 42 offenders charged under Operation Ironside had already pleaded guilty or have been sentenced.

More than 6.3 tonnes of illicit drugs and 147 weapons have also been seized, and over 700 alleged offenders have now been charged.