Minister links Italians' deaths to organised crime feud
Six Italian men were shot dead in a western German city today in an execution-style killing that Italy's interior minister said appeared to be part of a feud between two Italian organised crime clans.
The six victims were found in two vehicles near the main train station in Duisburg early today.
One of the men died while being taken by ambulance to a hospital, police spokesman Hermann-Josef Helmich said. All had gunshot wounds to the head.
Helmich said the men, between the ages of 16 and 39, were Italians, but gave no other information on their identities.
In Rome, Interior Minister Giuliano Amato said the killings apparently were part of a feud between two rival clans involved in the ’ndrangheta crime syndicate, which is based in Italy’s southern Calabria region and believed to have international involvement in drug and arms trafficking, extortion and other crimes.
Amato said one of the victims in Duisburg apparently was involved in the original feud, known as the “San Luca feud” for the Calabrian town where it began in 1991.
The shootings in Germany were “an unprecedented settling of scores, also because it took place in a foreign country for the first time,” Italy’s ANSA mews agency quoted the deputy head of the Regio Calabria police, Luigi De Sena, as saying.
De Sena said: “The presence of Calabrians in Germany is very strong, but until now they always kept a low profile, trying not to attract attention.”
Duisburg police said there had not previously been Mafia activity in the city, located at the western end of the Ruhr industrial region.
Investigators from Interpol in Rome have today left for Duisburg to help with the probe, an Interpol spokeswoman said.
Police said the two vehicles, a car and a van, had collided in a narrow passage between two office buildings.
It was unclear whether the collision occurred before or during the shootings.
The incident apparently happened around 2am (1am Irish time) and police found the two vehicles, both of them German-registered, half an hour later.
The victims appear to have been unarmed, Duisburg police spokesman Reinhard Pape said.
Pape said a pedestrian heard a noise and stopped a police patrol car that happened to be in the area.
Police said she reported hearing a bang followed by a noise resembling that made by fireworks and did not immediately think they were gunshots.
Numerous gun cartridges were found at the crime scene – about 100 yards from the train station, and close to an Italian restaurant.
“There must have been more than one person involved,” Pape said.
