that's known as the ndrangheta.hen teenagers run into trouble there and end up in the courts, calabria sends them to foster homes no an attempt to break that criminal cycle. >> 19-year-old won't appear on camera in his hometown. it would be too risky. he has quit the mafia and slipped off to the capitol reggio calabria. the road seemed mapped out for him and he had already taken his first steps on it. his family is ndrangheta, the calabrian version of the mafia. his father is in jail for life and he has done time himself. >> i was always facing the temptation of going down the wrong path, often out of fear. but i'm not a bad person. >> he wants to graduate from high school in june. it's extremely rare for someone from a mafia family to leave a life of crime. reggio calabria is the base of operations for the ndrangheta, europe's most powerful crime syndicate. the members of its clans have little chance of going legit, especially if they've already got a criminal record. judge robert griffin iii is determined to chang

the father-in-law is a member of ndrangheta, italy's version of the mafia. the associates sold more than a kilogram of heroin and plotted to ship 500 kilos of cocaine from south america to italy. authorities say it was the first time ndrangheta attempted to gain a toe hold in the u.s. ndrangheta can and has to be considered a powerful organization for handling international drug traffic. >> they maintained a money laundering network handling proceeds from narcotics. >> according to italian court papers, the shipping company the suspects were working with had been caught smuggling several millions to italy in cans of pineapple and coconut milk. >> decades after being arrested for fishing, a group of native americans could have their records wiped clean. years of work. the top dogs from this year's westminster dog show. >> welcome back. a live look at sochi russia, where the 2014 winter olympics are underway, it is 11:23 in the morning. good to have you with us. welcome back. former all-american college wrestler, hudson taylor formed a group to end homophobia

a lot of guys are intelligent, resourceful. >> let's talk about the ndrangheta syndicate. notorious for kidnapping, it's considered vicious. pope francis addressed the totality, referring to an execution-style hit that killed three people, including a 3-year-old boy and asked for the people that did that to come forward and repent. they are alleged to have killed a rival and fed him to pigs. who are these guys. >> again, this is nothing new. back in my day we had a policy that we never hurt women and children. we wouldn't go after law enforce the. we beat them in court. it's been different in italy. they go after prosecutors, families. it's a brutal group. it's nothing new. it's operated that way as far back as i can recall. >> how has the american mob's focus shifted since your day. >> back in my day we had a bigger network, were strong in the unions. we were spread out. i think the government did a good job by taking a lot of streets away. especially in new york where we had union control over the country, and that has been depleted. there is some involvement. again, the

what the ndrangheta didn't know a much stronger bridge existed between italy and new york, a bridge ofween american and italian law enforcement and has been built over decades and has stood the test of time. >> investigators describe the ndrangheta and so fist tight indicated and insidious organization coming from loretta lynch. they believe this recent bust really dealt a major, major blow to the syndicate's effort to try and gain a foothold here in new york. brooke. >> you mentioned the fishy cocaine, jason carroll. what does canned fruit have to do with this operation? >> yeah. again, once again, when it comes to drug trafficking, brooke, as you imagine, criminals allegedly use any means necessary to try to traffic drugs and according to the criminal complaint that we read through, not only do they try to hide cocaine in fish but also hid cocaine in pineapples, and also in coconut milk. so using any means necessary to try to traffic drugs from point "a" to point "b." >> and now, busted. >> jason carroll. thank you very often. >>> coming up one of my cnn colleague, anna navarro, if y

the head of the surprisingly modest household is an alleged member of the ndrangheta tight-knit operation in heroin and cocaine smuggling and money laundering with ties to the gambino family in new york. italian police took part in the raid and fbi special agents who cannot be identified were on hand here. >> we have a particularly strong relationship with italians that go back a number of decades. >> reporter: police and dogs searched the house. only a couple drew guns as a precautionary measure. they see getting caught and doing time as part of the price of doing business. this one was escorted out do carrying a blue bag and went so willingly, he wasn't even in handcuffs. two years to put together, what's ta like to be here now and see it come to fruition? >> it's good to get to this position to be able to indict. >> reporter: it won't put an end to the operation but in the words here they'll certainly have a significant impact. as the y talitalian raids were in progress, simultaneous operations in the united states netted seven suspects alleged members of two new york crime families. c