Italy's government is sending 900 soldiers and police to mafia strongholds in the south after six African immigrants were murdered there last week in what the authorities believe was a show of force by the crime syndicates. Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said on Tuesday the cabinet had approved deploying 500 soldiers to the areas where there is organized crime activity, in addition to the 400 extra police sent to the Campania region where the killings took place. The six victims – from Ghana, Togo and Liberia – were shot dead on Thursday at a tailor's shop in Castelvolturno, a town near Naples, in one of the bloodiest shootouts in recent memory by the Camorra, the local version of the mafia. Investigators believe the hitmen were a group of young, mafiosi from the Casalesi clan asserting control over drug and extortion rackets. Witnesses said the killers, some of whom wore police vests, sprayed 130 bullets at their victims then fired in the air to celebrate.
