The Italian police carried out this Monday a major anti-drug operation in the region of Calabria (south), with 54 detainees by an international cocaine trafficking network linked to the mafia that arrived from Ecuador, Spain, Germany, Holland and Belgium, using the port of Gioia Tauro as a strategic center.

More than 250 agents of the National Police, the Carabineros (militarized police) and the Finance Guard (financial police) were deployed in the operation, under the coordination of the Anti- Mafia Directorate of Reggio Calabria, for the execution of precautionary measures against the 54 suspects, the police reported.

All of them are accused of the crimes of association for crime for the purposes of drug trafficking, drug possession for trafficking purposes, money laundering and extortion, with the aggravating circumstance, for some suspects, of having acted with mafia methods.

During the investigations, in which the most modern technologies were used, the agents seized cash and hundreds of kilograms of drugs, the national police explained in a statement.

The detainees were part, with different degrees of responsibility, of two different criminal criminal associations, the national police explains in a statement.

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The investigations, carried out between 2021 and 2024, have made it possible to reconstruct the two criminal groups: one specialized in retail drug trafficking in the territories of Reggio Calabria, Villa San Giovanni and Gioia Tauro (southern Italy).

While the other was dedicated to the import of cocaine, hashish and marijuana from Ecuador, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, using the port of Gioia Tauro as a strategic center.

The death toll from the clashes between local military groups and clans in the southern Syrian city of Al Sueida, with a Druse majority, amounted to 30 and the number of injuries to about a hundred, the Syrian Ministry of the Interior reported on Monday.

The government department warned in a statement that it is still a “preliminary” recount and explained that the clashes “exploded between local military groups and clans in the Al Maquas neighborhood, in the city of Al Sueida, in a context of tensions accumulated in previous times.”

The incidents began on Sunday, after formations in the area were recently entangled in a series of mutual kidnappings following a robbery on the road that connects Damascus to Al Sueida, inhabited by the Druse religious minority, according to local media.

“This dangerous escalation comes in the midst of the absence of the relevant official institutions, which has aggravated the chaos, the deterioration of security and the inability of the local community to contain the crisis despite the repeated calls for calm,” the Ministry of the Interior warned in its statement.

The central authorities tried to negotiate the deployment of their security forces in the area after a wave of violent clashes between them and Druzian groups took place in areas populated by the community on the outskirts of Damascus and Al Sueida at the end of last April.

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However, leaders of the Druze minority insisted that local security remain in the hands of local forces, despite the fact that the incidents two months ago left more than a hundred dead, according to estimates by the organization Syrian Observatory of Human Rights.

The Interior announced on Monday that its units, in coordination with the Ministry of Defense, will initiate an intervention in the area to resolve the conflict and stop violence, as well as to guarantee security and bring those responsible for the incidents to justice.

In this line, the head of the department, Anas Khattab, also considered in his X account that “the absence of state institutions, in particular the military and security ones, is one of the main causes of the persistent tensions in Al Sueida and its surroundings.”

Therefore, he sees the presence of the central authorities in the administrative demarcation as the “only” way to achieve a peaceful environment and a return to “normality”.

After the overthrow of former Syrian President Bashar al-Asad, the country’s new government seeks to extend its control to the entire Syrian territory and integrate other armed actors into state forces, something to which both the Drusians and the Kurds have been reluctant.

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Also at least six members of the Syrian government forces died on Monday while intervening to contain the clashes.

“Armed bandits attacked military personnel while carrying out their mission in the Al Thala area, in rural areas of Al Sueida,” a source from the Ministry of Defense told Syrian state television, Al Ijbariya, confirming the death of six of them during the incidents.

In addition, another 15 were injured and an undetermined number of them were taken hostage, according to the channel.

Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) has confirmed the death of a Mexican bracero who had been hospitalized since Thursday, July 10, after sustaining severe injuries during a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid at a cannabis farm in Ventura County, Southern California.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expresses its deepest condolences to the family of the Mexican national who died following the incident on July 10 in Ventura County,” the SRE said in a statement.

The deceased has been identified as Jaime Alanis García, who was declared brain-dead and remained in critical condition at the Ventura County Medical Center until his death was officially confirmed on Saturday. The Ministry stated it will monitor the case closely through the External Legal Advice Program (PALE).

According to U.S. media outlets, Alanis fell from a height of more than nine meters while trying to evade immigration agents during the operation. Witnesses reported that he arrived at the hospital with skull and neck fractures. However, authorities have not yet released an official account of the incident.

The worker’s family and friends have released a video on social media demanding a full investigation into the circumstances that led to his hospitalization and eventual death. Alanis leaves behind a wife and daughter in Mexico, who were financially dependent on him.

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The Foreign Ministry also noted that the Mexican Consulate in Oxnard has been providing continuous support to the family, both in the U.S. and in Mexico, including during the hospitalization, through contact with relatives in Michoacán, and by assisting with the repatriation of his remains.