ITALY:ITALY'S DIFFICULT and ongoing battle with organised crime registered a significant triumph yesterday with the arrest of 31-year-old Paolo Nirta. He was captured in a dawn raid in the small Calabrian village of San Luca, the theatre of a 17-year-long Mafia feud between the Nirta-Strangio and Pelle-Vottari-Romeo families, two 'Ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia clans.
That feud made international headlines almost exactly a year ago when six Italians were gunned down in an execution outside a restaurant in the German town of Duisburg.
Both German and Italian investigators believe the Duisburg killings were just another grisly episode in a feud which allegedly started with some seemingly innocent egg-throwing at the 1991 Carnevale celebrations in San Luca. Investigators, however, believe the bitter and bloody rivalry between the two clans was in reality prompted by disagreements about the division of money from kidnapping, for so long a cottage industry in Calabria.
Although he is not wanted in connection with the Duisburg killings, Paolo Nirta is still considered a major catch, if only because investigators believe that, in the absence of his father Giuseppe and his brother Gianluca, both currently in detention, Paolo Nirta had become the family's number one capo.
When police knocked on the door of the building where they believed him to be in hiding, Nirta did not respond. Very quickly police smashed in the door, finding Nirta attempting to escape via a balcony at the back. After a brief chase, he was apprehended and flown by helicopter to the Reggio Calabria jailhouse.
Speaking on radio yesterday, senior Calabrian Mafia investigator Nicola Gratteri pointed out this arrest was doubly significant: "Not only is he wanted for a vast range of Mafia-related crimes, including murder, but the arrest is highly symbolic, coming as it did in his own village where the 'Ndrangheta would like to consider itself invincible and where Nirta could count on a vast network of support. To have arrested him in San Luca sends an important signal, a signal that the state is present and able to fight the 'Ndrangheta."
A significant amount of written material was seized in yesterday's raid, material which could throw light on a series of recent criminal actions, including last year's Duisburg killings. The number one wanted man in relation to Duisburg is Giovanni Strangio, brother-in-law of the Mafia godfather arrested yesterday.