Italian police swoop on mafia racket extorting €50 a coffin from funeral homes

Dawn raids in Puglia lead to about 40 arrests of suspected members of the fifth mafia'

An emerging mafia that ran a protection racket extorting 50 (45) a coffin from funeral homes has been raided by hundreds of police in one of the largest ever such busts in the southern Italian region of Puglia.

Dawn raids centred on the city of Foggia led to the arrest of some 40 alleged members of a criminal organisation described by Italian authorities as the country's number one public enemy".