Italy - Camorra Arrests

epa02175386 Handout picture released on Wednesday 26 May 2010 by the Italian Police showing five members of a Camorra clan who were arrested Wednesday for preying on the 30 residents of a southern Italian village who split a 33-million-euro lottery jackpot in January 2008. The Neapolitan Camorra crime syndicate managed to get its hands on one of Italy's biggest recent lottery wins, police said. The winners were a group of factory workerscraftsmen in Ospedaletto d'Alpinolo near Avellino, police said. The gangsters forced them to hand over 'a large part of their winnings, Avellino prosecutor Rosario Cantelmo told a press conference. 'Some of them had already had to come up with as much as 40,000 euros but luckily the police stopped the payments in time,' he said. Police got wind of the pay-outs while investigating extortion rackets against local businessmen, Cantelmo said. The prosecutor said the case would never have come to light without the wiretaps the police were running on the clan. The incident also showed, he said, 'how deep-rooted the Camorra is in local societyhow it knows everything that goes on'. Most winners of big Italian lotteries remain unknown, sometimes after paying off the sellers of their lucky ticket.  EPA/U.S. COMANDO PROVINCIALE CARABIN / HANDOUT  EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES