Highlights
– Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s new Naples garbage plan under heavy fire
– Killings provoke thousands of immigrants to riot against Camorra violence
– Troop deployment to Naples provides near-term solution for Camorra and immigrant related violence, more Camorra arrests required for long-term impact
On September 27, 2008, nearly 3,000 angry demonstrators clashed with police over plans to start a new dump at a quarry in the poor Chiaiano neighborhood, located just outside Naples. Demonstrators set fire to several trash bins in the streets and hurled incendiary devices towards police, injuring five officers. The latest violence is likely a sign that future clashes with police are on the horizon. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has vowed to transfer the mounds of garbage from all over the city into dumps in 10 smaller towns located on the Naples periphery, causing concern for these communities over the potential environmental and health consequences.
The fresh clashes follow a new anti-crime measure that will send roughly 500 soldiers to the Caserta area just outside Naples to restrain a recent spate of tension between African immigrant communities and the Casalesi Camorra clan, one of the most feared Camorra gangs in the Naples region. The additional 500 soldiers deployed to Naples will support a 400 strong police force and will likely perform duties such as manning checkpoints. As previously reported, the Italian government also sent 3,000 troops to the country’s major cities to combat the rising incidence of crime (Previous Report). Authorities estimate that the soldiers could be in the city for roughly three months.
While a near-term sense of stability will likely be seen in the Caserta area, the frustrations by the city’s poor immigrant communities will likely emerge again in the mid to long-term, possibly resulting in further violence between immigrant drug gangs, the Camorra and security forces.
Investigation Continues
On September 18, 2008, four suspected members of the Camorra clan gunned down a 53-year-old Italian owner of a gaming arcade shop for refusing to pay “protection money.” Nearly 20 minutes later, the assailants then fired more than 130 bullets from a car and several motor scooters toward a tailoring shop operated by West African immigrants, killing three Ghanaians, two Liberians and a Togo national. Following the brutal drive-by shooting, race riots erupted in the town of Castelvolturno with acts of smashing car windows, stoning police vehicles, and vandalizing nearby shops.
Shortly thereafter, on September 30, 2008, police arrested several suspects in Naples and surrounding areas in connection with the murders. Police claim to have seized assets and weapons worth €100 million during the operation, including two AK-47s believed to have been used against the immigrants. Among the suspects are three top fugitive bosses who are on Italy’s 100 most wanted list. In a separate operation, hundreds of police raided the hideouts of 26 suspects believed to be part of the Camorra clan.
Earlier this week, anti-Mafia police also seized €10 billion in assets of Giuseppe Setola, a boss of the Casalesi Camorra clan who is linked to the murders. Authorities reportedly seized Setola’s 20 apartments, a bar, and various plots of land acquired through extortion and drug trafficking operations.
Outlook
The last incidence of large-scale troop deployment to target organized crime occurred in 1992 in southern Italy. With this in mind, the recent deployment to Naples largely symbolizes the government’s concern with the security situation and the Camorra’s increasingly corrupt control over the area. Additionally, the recent murders are also an alarming sign that other episodes of violence may be possible in the near-term. With the area as a hub of the drug trade in the Caserta province, the brutal killings are more than likely a message to African drug dealers in the region that the Camorra will impose its will on the territory.
While the troops will help patrol the area and help maintain near-term stability, the deployment does not threaten the overall structural power of the Camorra organization. Further, Berlusconi’s plan for the new garbage dumps will likely receive staunch criticism from poorer communities, and also the Camorra clans as it currently controls the entire garbage disposal process around Naples, including running the dumps and various waste transport companies that bring in approximately US$880 million a year.
While the deployment of thousands of troops in 1992 helped crack down on the Sicilian Mafia, this new measure will likely provide only a near-term solution in suppressing tensions between the Camorra and African immigrant communities.
