ROME (AP) — Italian police have launched a sweep against Italy's so-called "fourth Mafia," arresting 30 suspected mobsters.

Italy's national anti-Mafia prosecutor, Federico Cafiero de Raho, said Friday that the Foggia-based figures allegedly operated extortion rackets and used violence to control their "territory" near the "spur" of the boot-shaped peninsula in southeast Italy.

He added that, unlike Italy's three well-known crime syndicates — Sicily's Cosa Nostra, the Naples-area Camorra and the Calabrian 'ndrangheta — which in recent years have cut back on killings to gain power, the Foggia mafiosi are resorting to violence to bolster their influence.

The prosecutor thanked "the few courageous business owners" who denounced the mafiosi's extortion attempts.