to Croatia, in the early 1990s. The organisation had a firm hold of nearly every criminal venture in the region, from money laundering to loansharking and extortion, but its major source of income was drug dealing; the group bought massive amount of cocaine directly from the Sicilian and Colombian Mafia, as well as heroin from Turkish drug baron Nvo Berisa, who helped a number of Venetian mobsters in hiding in Turkey, including Felice Maniero and Antonio Pandolfo, the group's second in command. Its members are exclusively native to the Veneto region, but with a number of associates operating in the region from Cosa Nostra, Camorra and it is believed from the Ndrangheta as well. It is also known that Brenta mafiosi have colluded with Stidda members on a number of occasions involving a number of fraudulent scams at a Maltese casino in 2002. Downfall The organisation was thought to be dismantled in late 1994, due to revelations that the former boss Maniero was captured by a task force of 400 policemen issued with the sole task of bringing Maniero and his associates down. After being arrested in Turin in 1993 (having previously evaded the Padua and Vicenza prisons) together with many of the top members of the syndicate. Maniero, faced with life imprisonment, turned informant, helping the Italian police dismantle the organisation he himself had created, contributing to the arrest of more than 400 of the mob's members, as well as a number of judges, policemen, and local Venetian businessmen that had aligned themselves with the organisation. Although it has been revealed that Maniero continued a number of criminal activities and many of his former henchmen re-organised the Mala del Brenta to ensure survival, it is now called Nuova Mala del Brenta or Nuova Mafia Veneta and it still influences many criminal ventures in the region, ranging from robberies and bank heists to arms and drug trafficking. Recent years In August 1996, the members of the re-instated gang, coordinated a spectacularly successful heist at the "Mirabilandia" theme park securing 350 billion lira in an attempt to get the group back on its feet after the revelations of Maniero and other turncoats. In May 2005, Francesco Tonicello a member of the old Mala del Brenta, was arrested in London after having been on the run for a number of years as one of Italy's most wanted men. A master forger, he