Monday, September 28, 2009

Italian mafia leader caught

Customs officers apprehended Italian mafia boss and international fugitive Giancarlo De Luca when he attempted to cross the Hungarian-Romanian border last week. De Luca narrowly escaped when Italian police arrested six members of the Naples-based Casalesi clan in a raid on 17 July and had been on the run ever since, according to Italian news agency ANSA.

Read full article here: http://www.budapesttimes.hu/content/view/13081/219/

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Italy fights mob terror near Naples

CASAL DI PRINCIPE, Italy — The paratroopers' armored vehicles had barely taken up position in this fiefdom of the Casalesi crime clan when the mobsters decided to show who was boss.

On a sleepy Sunday, a few hundred yards from where the crack Thunderbolt brigade was deployed with automatic rifles, two gunmen drove down the town's main street and pumped bullets into a 60-year-old man at a table just inside the entrance of a card parlor.

The murder of an uncle of a crime syndicate turncoat left blood oozing across the stone sidewalk and a collective silence by potential witnesses among fellow card players, prompting a wry comment that the victim must have been playing solitaire.

Read full article: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-11-16-931996249_x.htm

Friday, October 3, 2008

Casalesi Mafia behind killing of Ghanaians

The powerful Casalesi Camorra clan is believed to have been behind the massacre at the Italian town of Castelvolturno, in which six African immigrants including three Ghanaians were slaughtered.

Police reports said the incident began with the shooting of an amusement arcade's 53-year-old Italian owner, known to have had links with the Casalesi.

Twenty minutes later, in another part of town, the six immigrants were mown down in a 120-round hail of fire from semi-automatic pistols and Kalashnikovs.

Read full article here: http://news.myjoyonline.com/international/200810/21237.asp

Brief history of the Casalesi Clan

The Casalesi clan, which takes its name from the town of Casal di Principe near Naples, has been described as the successor of the Corleone family, which ruled Sicily in the 1980s.

The bloodthirsty family is thought to have carried out more than 1,000 hits in the past 30 years to establish an iron grip on the area between Naples and Salerno.

However, Francesco Schiavone, the head of the clan, will now spend the rest of his life in prison after being successfully convicted.

Read full article here: http://www.modernghana.com/news/184768/1/brief-history-of-the-casalesi-clan.html

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Police arrest suspects in Mafia killings

ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Italian authorities Tuesday arrested two suspects believed to be responsible for the September 18 killing of six African immigrants in Castelvolturno, a small town of 20,000 residents north of Naples.

Police also arrested a third man wanted by authorities for belonging to the same clan, but not directly linked to the killings.

The victims were gunned down in a hail of bullets as they stood outside a store selling ethnic goods. The attack sparked a riot by immigrants who complained about "racism" but officials suspect a dispute over drug trafficking.

Read full article here: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/09/30/italy.mafia.killings.arrest/index.html

Friday, September 19, 2008

Riot after Africans shot in Italy

Immigrants in a southern Italian town have rioted after six Africans were killed in a suspected mafia attack outside a shop.

People smashed windows and threw rocks in Castelvolturno, north-west of the city of Naples.

The six men from Ghana, Liberia and Togo were shot dead late on Thursday.

Read full article here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7626099.stm