This is not the Mafia. This is a separate crime group.
There's three major organized crime groups in Southern Italy

Mafia is from Sicily. Camorra is from Naples and the oldest of the three. ’ndrangheta is from Calabria.

https://apnews.com/article/ndrangheta-mafia-italy-trial-cocaine-b66721f29ad482811b14846b7ec7e30b

This group has become more powerful than the mafia. They expanded into Northern Italy which is where most capital and industry are.

The Mafia was also the subject of previous maxi trials, so I don't know about the "suddenly" or cleaning up. This has been going on for a while.

The ’ndrangheta has quietly amassed power in Italy and abroad as the Sicilian Mafia lost influence and now holds almost a monopoly on cocaine importation in Europe, according to anti-mafia prosecutors who led the investigation in southern Italy. The organization also has bases in North and South America and is active in Africa, Italian prosecutors maintain, and ’ndrangheta figures have been arrested in recent years around Europe and in Brazil and Lebanon.

Some members of the were arrested in a gun running/drug running scheme in a bakery near my Mom's house about a decade ago. It was a good bakery. A couple of local crime families were involved.