On Wednesday, six Italian men were shot and killed outside a restaurant in Germany as a result of mob activities:

Six Italian men died in a hail of gunfire early Wednesday after a pizzeria celebration of one victim’s 18th birthday — a Mafia-style massacre that officials said grew out of a long-running feud between two organized crime clans in southern Italy.The slayings in this industrial city marked the first time the ‘ndragheta syndicate exported a vendetta, Italian authorities said. The organization, based in Italy’s Calabria region, is heavily involved in drug trafficking and extortion and earlier this year officials described it as even more dangerous than the Sicilian Mafia.

The ‘Ndrangheta is involved in the drug trade in Europe and is able to generate money off of the trafficking of illicit drugs and other black market activities.

Eighty per cent of Europe’s cocaine passes through the Calabrian port of Gioia Tauro and the clans’ operations have also spread to money-laundering and extortion, prostitution and arms trafficking.

Based on today’s exchange rate, the mob syndicate is estimated to be earning over $53 billion in annual turnover based on their illicit activities.

Milan prosecutors say that the ’Ndrangheta has taken control both of illegal drugs trafficking — mostly cocaine — and legitimate businesses in the north, and together with its international links has a turnover of €40 billion (£27 billion) a year, equivalent to 3.5 per cent of Italian GDP.

The name of the organization is often translated from Greek to mean “virtue”:

The export of mob violence outside Italy may signal a change for ‘Ndrangheta, a confederation of families thought to have come into existence around the time of Italian unification, in 1871. The name is often translated, from Greek, as “virtue,” and it refers to the 100 or so families involved.

Update:  Here are some more information regarding ‘Ndrangheta.  It’s pronounced “en-drang-ay-ta”, and they are estimated to have some 6,000 to 7,000 members, compared to 5,000 for the Cosa Nostra.  For more background, read this article by John Hopper in The Guardian: Move over, Cosa Nostra.