Italy murder fuels 'mafia' fears

[bijou]

The murder of a man in southern Italy has fuelled concern about an escalation of a blood feud among the Calabrian mafia or 'Ndrangheta.
Police say the victim, Francesco Capicchiano, 33, was carrying a pistol but did not even have time to draw it as two gunmen opened fire.

It was the third mafia murder in the Crotone area in just five days.

The 'Ndrangheta, has overtaken Sicily's Cosa Nostra as the richest and most fearsome of the Italian mafia.

It is characterised by close blood ties and a global reach. Long under-estimated it shot to international attention after last August's massacre of six young Italian men outside a pizzeria in Duisburg, Germany.

That high profile massacre was part of a faida, or feud, that had started in 1991, and which had often featured attacks on religious holidays.

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