Will Killings in Germany Spark Mafia-Style War?

ROME, Aug. 24, 2007— -- In the end, the parents had their way. They were granted permission to mourn their sons in public funerals and burials in their hometowns set in the rugged hills of Calabria in southern Italy.

In a surprise nighttime attack Aug. 15, police say six men, all descendents of families from the area around the town of San Luca in Calabria, were fatally shot in the head as they were leaving a birthday dinner in an Italian pizzeria in downtown Duisburg, Germany, police said.

For days, while they waited for their sons' bodies to return home from Germany, the families appealed to public officials to let them bury their loved ones in the traditional Catholic way. Their sons were innocent victims, they insisted; they did not want to to be forced to mourn them in private police-guarded funerals.

It would be "like killing them twice," the mother of one of the victims told reporters.

German investigators, now working with Italian police, believe two men fired 70 shots from two small machine guns before probably driving off with an accomplice.

The victims did not shoot back.

The six victims were between the ages of 16 and 38: Tommaso Venturi, who was celebrating his 18th birthday that night; Francesco Giorgi; brothers Francesco and Marco Pergola; Sebastiano Strangio; and Marco Marmo, who investigators believe was the target of the attack.

Security has been stepped up in the towns of San Luca and the surrounding area since the attack. Uniformed police have been standing guard on the streets as the funerals took place.

Officials would not concede to one request from the families, so processions accompanying the coffins to the church and cemetery were banned out of fear of mob violence.

About 100 people attended the funeral service for the Pergola brothers Thursday morning in Siderno's parish church, according to local reports.

Many were seen throwing red roses and applauding as a sign of respect, as their coffins left the church; most of the town, however, stayed away, preferring not to be seen.

Organized-crime investigations believe the executions in Germany are linked to a series of vendetta-style killings in the area of San Luca, in the hills of the Aspromonte mountains in Calabria, southern Italy. Investigators say that up to 20 people have lost their lives in this local feud between two rival clans of the 'ndrangheta (pronounced AN-dran-getta), the Calabrian homegrown version of the Sicilian mafia.

The heartland of 'ndrangheta power lies in the Aspromonte mountain area in Calabria, but its reach is international and it virtually monopolizes cocaine trafficking in Europe.

It's no small family business with annual returns estimated at more than $49 billion that include money accrued from illegal activities like extortion, corruption, prostitution and arms trafficking. As an organization, it invests very little in southern Italy, but has concentrated its attention on money-laundering activities in the more affluent northern and central regions of Italy and Eastern Europe.

Experts in organized crime say that as an organization, the 'ndrangheta has adapted greatly to modern laundering methods and its clan members are highly skilled in the Internet. The 'ndrangheta has more active members than the Sicilian mafia and prosecutors now believe it has eclipsed the Sicilian mafia in power.

Unlike the Sicilian mafia with its single hierarchical boss and pyramid structure, the 'ndrangheta operates like a federation and has remained a strictly family affair. Its tight family connections make it very hard to infiltrate and it has had very few turncoats over the years.

An Italian secret service report recently presented in Parliament said, "'ndrangheta groups tend to cluster where there is the clearest and most settled emigrant communities, in order to preserve their power to intimidate and their ability to penetrate the local economic and financial fabric."

Its members are known to have emigrated as far as Canada, the United States, South America and Australia and still provide a vital support network. Traditionally 'ndrangheta kept a low profile abroad, which allowed it to operate its business quietly. Prosecutors working on this case are concerned the Duisburg killings may mark a new direction for the clan.

They believe the killings in Germany were retaliation for the Christmas 2006 shooting of Maria Strangio, a clan boss' wife, in San Luca; Marmo, who was killed in Duisburg, was believed to be involved in the 2006 attack. This San Luca rival clan war first turned bloody more than 16 years ago in 1991 when masked youths entered a rival clan's bar in town and threw eggs as part of a Carnival tradition. They were gunned down later that day.

The funeral for the other three victims took place late Thursday in San Luca after their coffins were seen being driven with a police escort from Rome's airport.

Relatives and friends gathered to wait quietly in front of the church. Many were seen wearing white to signal forgiveness and a desire to break with the past, ignoring the traditional black worn at Catholic funerals.

Giorgi's mother was seen clutching a photo of the 16-year-old as she waited for the procession. The crowd that had gathered — about 1,000 — according to reports, burst into applause as the coffins arrived at the church while the mothers who had lost their sons embraced.

During the ceremony, one of the mothers was heard to call out for "justice, not vendetta." The Rev. Don Strangio reportedly told the congregation, "The life we are leading no longer seems like life, but like a living death. We must lift up our heads from this Via Crucis."

For now, with the funerals over, these small towns hugging the harsh Aspromonte mountains are trying to resume some form of normality. The fear of vendetta hangs heavily in the air. Nobody is talking.

Interviewed on Italian TV news, the San Luca's cemetery custodian shrugged his shoulders and said he didn't know anything about a Mafia clan feud in the town or whether 'ndrangheta exists.

He said he knows nothing.