ITALY:THE CAMORRA, the Neapolitan mafia, are believed to have carried out a dramatic "punishment" killing on Thursday night in the Campania town of Castel Volturno in which six African immigrants were gunned down, writes Paddy Agnewin Rome
At about 9.30pm, six or seven men, armed with Kalashnikovs and calibre 9 pistols and wearing bullet-proof jackets, burst into the "Ob Ob Exotic Fashions" clothes shop in Castel Volturno.
They fired more than 100 bullets and killed six men - three from Ghana, two from Liberia and one from Togo.
Twenty minutes earlier in nearby Baia Verde, in what police believe to be a related incident, 53-year-old Antonio Celiento, owner of a games hall, was killed in a "professional hit" when he was riddled with at least 20 bullets fired by masked killers.
Investigators believe that the powerful Casalesi crime family may have been behind the killings, punishing the immigrants because they had dared to push drugs without having paid their "dues" in an area dominated by the Casalesi. Senior Caserta-based police officer, Ezio Monaco, yesterday speculated that the army might be called in to help with what he called a "crime emergency", saying: "We are considering the possibility of bringing in the army."
The police interpretation of the killings was, however, strongly contested by the resident African community of Castel Volturno, members of whom staged an impromptu road block yesterday.
One Ghanaian man, Steven, uncle of one of those killed, told reporters that his nephew had "done nothing wrong" whilst other Africans, shouting "Italian bastards", denied any links with the Camorra, and accused the local community of racism.
The African protest soon became violent with the seemingly spontaneous gathering throwing stones, in the process smashing cars and shop windows.
During a ceremony in Naples yesterday, held to mark the "miraculous" liquefaction of the blood of the fourth-century Christian martyr, San Gennaro, the Archbishop of Naples, Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, issued a strong condemnation of the Camorra.