(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-04-07 16:34

ROME - Italian police arrested 38 suspects on Monday in a sweep against a clan of the 'ndrangheta organized crime syndicate that allegedly committed murders, engaged in extortion and trafficked in drugs and arms.

Three suspects were still being sought after the early morning raids conducted across Italy and centered in the southern Calabria region, where the powerful mob group is based.

Police in the city of Crotone said the operation has crippled a clan that terrorized businesses in the area with attacks and firebombings if they refused to pay protection money.

During previous phases of the investigation, police uncovered three arms stashes that included AK-47s and explosives, said Gaetano D'Amato, Crotone's police chief.

The group was also allegedly involved in supplying drugs to northern Italy and in the murder of two rival clansmen in 2000, D'Amato said.

The probe was not connected to the killing of six Italians in Germany last summer, he said. Investigators believe that feuding between two other 'ndrangheta clans, based in a different area of Calabria, led to the August 15 killings outside a pizza parlor in Duisburg.