ROME — The Italian government Tuesday ordered the deployment of a military task force to fight a wave of violence by the Neapolitan mafia, which culminated last week in the slayings of six African immigrants in a suspected feud over drug turf.
The decision to send the military to the province of Caserta, north of Naples, shows that the ruthless clans of the Camorra, as the mafia in Naples is known, pose a formidable challenge to the government. The last time soldiers were used to combat organized crime was in 1992 in southern Italy after Sicilian gangsters assassinated two top anti-Mafia judges.
The Cabinet on Tuesday approved the proposal by Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa, who said the soldiers were needed to cope with a "criminal emergency." Most of the 500 troops will be deployed to Caserta for three months and perform duties such as manning checkpoints and reinforcing 400 police officers who were sent Monday, La Russa said.
"We fear there could be other episodes of violence -- this is why we increased the pressure in that area in order to neutralize the firepower of the groups," Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said on the RAI television network. "In the area of Caserta there is a real Camorra civil war, and therefore we want the state to regain the upper hand in that area."
The rise of Neapolitan gangsters has led to brazen killings of rivals, witnesses and others as clans impose control over activities such as drug dealing and illegal dumping of toxic waste. Italian leaders considered sending troops to Naples two years ago but rejected the idea.
This time authorities are responding to months of deadly violence attributed to the Casalesi, a Camorra clan whose wild, swaggering exploits contrast with the brutal but more disciplined and discreet style of the Sicilian Mafia. Recent killings in Castelvolturno, a hub of the drug trade in Caserta province, also reflects the new ethnic structure of a criminal underworld that is being reshaped by immigration.
On Thursday, four men killed the owner of an amusement arcade in Castelvolturno. The assailants then drove to a clothing store operated by West African immigrants and fired hundreds of rounds into the store, killing three Ghanians, two Liberians and a man from Togo. On Monday, police arrested a suspect linked to the Casalesi clan.
The slayings set off riots by African immigrants, tens of thousands of whom have settled in the region.
