Brazen killings show power of Italian 'Ndrangheta

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

ROME, Aug 15 (Reuters) Italian mafia experts have long warned that a crime syndicate based in the southern region of Calabria, the 'Ndrangheta, posed a bigger threat than its more famous Sicilian counterpart.

But the brazen killing of six Italians in Germany, apparently the latest chapter of a feud between two Calabrese clans, indicates that the 'Ndrangheta is even more powerful and well established internationally than previously thought, investigators said.

''The presence of the 'Ndrangheta in Germany was known. But the fact that these killings took place not just outside the region where these clans are based, but outside Italy, is extraordinary and unprecedented,'' deputy Interior Minister Marco Minniti told a news conference.

The six male victims, aged between 16 and 39, were all members of a clan embroiled in a long-running feud with a rival faction in the town of San Luca.

The dispute, which began with a brawl between Carnival revellers in 1991, has simmered on and off for years. But it suddenly escalated last December when the young wife of a clan chief was gunned down on Christmas Day.

Italian investigators believe today's killings were part of a vendetta after that murder, and fear a bloody riposte by the victims' relatives.

''Our big worry is that now there will be a reprisal and that it will be equally daring and deadly,'' said Alberto Cisterna, a top anti-mafia national prosecutor.

''Relatives of the victims will feel they need to show as much if not more determination and gun power than the killers, otherwise they're out,'' he said.

Interior Minister Giuliano Amato said Italian police were already working to prevent ''a similar tragedy'' in Calabria.

VENDETTA But besides the possible immediate consequences, Cisterna said the bold nature of the shootings sent a strong message about the power of the 'Ndrangheta.

''You don't kill like that simply for a vendetta. You kill like that to assert power. It is not just the clan behind it that comes out stronger, it is the 'Ndrangheta as a whole.

It shows a strength, a capacity to intimidate that is very worrying,'' he said.

The 'Ndrangheta began life as a covert rural organisation in the late 19th century. After World War Two it shifted its focus from banditry to extortion, kidnapping and drug trafficking.

Unlike the Mafia, which has a pyramidal structure, the 'Ndrangheta is based on a myriad of clans whose loyalties are ensured by blood relationships and arranged marriages.

It expanded abroad -- particularly in Europe, Canada and Australia -- along with emigration, traditionally keeping a low profile.

But since the 1990s it has taken advantage of the fight led by the Italian government against the Sicilian clans -- which culminated with the arrest of the Mafia's boss of bosses, Bernardo Provenzano, last year.

Investigators believe the 'Ndrangheta is now one of Europe's biggest drug trafficking organisations, with direct ties to Colombia's cocaine trade.

''It looks like we underestimated them,'' said Giuseppe Lumia, vice chairman of parliament's anti-mafia commission.

REUTERS RSA BST2107

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