Former PM Fico’s advisor phoned to ‘Ndrangheta affiliate

Italian police tracked 452 phone calls between the alleged member of the Calabrian criminal organisation 'Ndrangheta Antonino Vadala and Mária Trošková, who was Assistant to the former Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico at the time, reported Italian Public Broadcaster RAI on Saturday. According to the report by investigative journalist Maria Grazia Mazzola, Vadala said to the undercover agent that he had invested €1 million into bribing people in the Slovak administration - police, customs and Slovak Intelligence Service (SIS). Vadala reportedly had relations with the then Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák and the former SIS head Ján Valko. Valko rejected these reports and called them absurd. He also announced that he would ask the current SIS leadership to look into the matter. As of Monday morning, Trošková and Kaliňák had not reacted to the report.