Nigella Lawson's former aides' father, Michele Grillo, arrested Michele Grillo, 66, is said by Italian authorities to be a mafioso 'of standing' His arrest comes just weeks after his daughters were acquitted of fraud Elisabetta and Francesca were accused of spending £685k on credit cards The cards belonged to Nigella Lawson and her ex-husband, Charles Saatchi By Hannah Roberts In Rome The father of Nigella Lawson's former personal assistants has been arrested as part of a crackdown on Italy's most powerful and dangerous mafia clan. Michele Grillo, 66, is accused of extortion and cocaine trafficking. His arrest comes just weeks after his daughters Elisabetta and Francesca were acquitted of spending £685,000 on credit cards. Police swoop: Michele Grillo, pictured outside his home in Motta Visconte, outside Milan, Italy, has been arrested on drugs and extortion charges Their defence centred on accusations that they were allowed to spend whatever they wanted in exchange for keeping quiet about Nigella's alleged cocaine habit. Grillo, who has been named in Italian parliamentary documents as a mafioso "of standing" was previously sentenced to 18 years for the 1981 kidnap of the sister of a fashion designer. Tullia Kauten was snatched as she went to get into her car and held for four terrifying months before being ransomed for £400,000. Explanation: Francesca (left) and Elisabetta Grillo (right) tell their side of the Nigella trial on This Morning The family hail from the notorious mountain town of Plati, kidnap capital of Italy and unofficial headquarters of the Calabrian branch of the mafia. Ninety per cent of the town's population, who are all closely related, have criminal records, police say. The "Ndrangheta, Italy's richest organised crime group today, with connections across the world from Mexican drug cartels to the IRA, controls 80 per cent of Europe's cocaine trade. Grillo was secretly recorded in his car discussing an unsolved "Ndrangheta murder in a nightclub in 1976, prosecutors allege. The father of four is also accused of connections with the ruthless Barbaro-Papalia clan. Nigella Lawson arriving at Isleworth Crown Court last December as she prepared to give evidence for day two of the trial Grillo, who has his own haulage business, was arrested in his hometown of Motta Visconti, outside Milan, where he lives with his youngest daughter and wife Maria. The Calabrian mafia have extended their reach into the Milan area where many of them are involved in the construction trade, police say. The criminal gang offered "total protection" to local entrepreneurs threatening them if they did not pay their debts, court papers stated. In January 2012 Grillo received cocaine and hashish from one of his former prison companions, which he then sold, prosecutors allege. Only last month Grillo told the Daily Mail that his crimes were merely "the follies of youth" and that his mafia days were behind him.