Spain arrests 'important' member of Italian Mafia

Spanish police have arrested an "important member" of Sicily's Cosa Nostra Mafia, the Interior Ministry said yesterday, the latest in a string of arrests of Italian mob figures in the country.

Police detained the 57-year-old man, identified only by his initials P.M., near his home outside the northeastern industrial port of Tarragona, it said in a statement.

He is the brother of another Cosa Nostra member who was detained last December by Italian police in Milan and who lived in Spain's northeastern Catalonia region, where Tarragona is located, with his family.

"The two brothers are important members of the Sicilian criminal world as they are part of the structure of Cosa Nostra, dedicated to the international trafficking of narcotics," the interior statement said.

"The two were sentenced (in Italy) for drug trafficking and fled custody while on a leave," it added. The two brothers had been sentenced to jail terms of over 30 years for having smuggled over 400 kilos of cocaine into Italy.

Around a dozen Italian mafia members have been arrested in Spain since 2006. Spain, with its historical and cultural links to Latin America, is the main entryway into Europe for South American cocaine and hashish from its southern neighbour Morocco.