'HISTORIC' CALABRIAN MOB BOSS DIES IN JAIL
'HISTORIC' CALABRIAN MOB BOSS DIES IN JAIL
(ANSA) - Locri, November 4 - The head of an 'Ndrangheta clan involved in a headline-grabbing 2007 gangland slaying in Germany died in prison Wednesday.
Calabrian godfather Antonio Pelle, 77, boss of the clan of the same name in the small village of San Luca, had been in jail since his arrest four months ago after nine years on the run.
Pelle apparently died of a heart attack in the high-security jail in this town in the southern Italian region, prison sources said.
At the time of his arrest on June 12, while recovering from a hernia operation in a local hospital, the boss was among the top 30 names on Italy's most wanted list.
Reggio Calabria public prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone hailed his capture and called Pelle ''one of the historic bosses of the organisation''.
He said Pelle's nickname, 'Ntoni Gambazza, was synonymous with 'Ndrangheta ''in Calabria and also beyond''.
The bloody feud between San Luca's Pelle-Vottari and Nirta-Strangio clans culminated in six gangland murders at a pizzeria in Duisburg, Germany, on August 15, 2007.
The massacre grabbed headlines around the world.
The feud had apparently petty origins in a February 1991 argument during a carnival celebration in San Luca.
Anger over an egg-throwing incident boiled over.
Two members of the Strangio-Nirta clan died and two more wounded.
Four more deaths followed in 1993 in two separate vendetta hits.
The war re-exploded after a seven-year lull on Christmas Day 2006 when gunmen ambushed the reputed leader of the Nirta-Strangio clan, Giovanni Nirta.
He escaped unharmed but his wife, Maria Strangio, was killed.
One of the victims of the Duisburg massacre, Marco Marmo, was a member of the rival Pelle-Vottari clan and is suspected of being part of the group which killed Maria Strangio.
The man suspected of organising and leading the massacre, Giovanni Strangio, cousin of Maria Strangio, was arrested in Amsterdam in March.
Although the massacre in the peaceful German city put 'Ndrangheta in the global spotlight, in Italy its power has been growing for years,
Ndrangheta' (from a Greek word meaning 'heroism' or virtue') once lived in the twin shadow of its Sicilian cousin Cosa Nostra and the Camorra in Naples.
Now regarded as the strongest and most impenetrable of Italy's mafias, its power base has been consolidated by its domination of the European cocaine market, where it has an estimated annual turnover of almost 36 billion euros (nearly $56 billion).
The Duisburg massacre, on top of the 2005 murder of top regional official Francesco Fortugno, brought the Italian state down heavily on 'Ndrangheta and there have been scores of arrests in recent years.
But its criminal hold in large areas of the region remains formidable, experts say.
Recent arrests have exposed continuing activity in the huge container port of Gioia Tauro. pic: file photo outside clinic where Pelle was captured in June
