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WORLD NEWS Friday 11 august 2017

Deadly ambush puts spotlight on lesser-known Foggia mafia

ings this year alone. sent a commission to the crime boss appears to have
“I am deeply shocked by area to study the phenom- been the main target when
the ferocity of the mafia enon at least twice in re- gunmen traveling in a car
ambush,” Foggia president cent years, and an inves- opened fire on another ve-
Francesco Miglio said be- tigative unit of the Cara- hicle, killing the boss and his
fore an emergency meet- binieri police was recently driver, who was identified
ing of law enforcement led assigned to Foggia for the as his brother-in-law. The
by Italy’s interior minister first time. killers then chased down
later Thursday. “The barbar- Still, the so-called “fourth another vehicle contain-
ity even hit two innocent mafia,” has never garnered ing two local residents who
workers who were silenced national media attention apparently happened to
only because they hap- like that of the Sicilian Cosa witness the shootings, and
pened to be present for the Nostra, the powerful Cal- killed them.
crime.” abrian ‘Ndrangheta or the Anti-mafia investigators
The ambush has put the Camorra itself. said in a recent report
Plain clothes police officers search the area around a car where spotlight on a long-over- “This extremely barbarous that the Foggia organized
they found the body of a man who, according to Italian news looked crime syndicate form of criminality in Fog- crime syndicate had two
agency ANSA, was among 4 people killed by gunmen in an that authorities say arrived gia has been too long main groups, one on the
apparent Mafia hit, near Foggia, in the southern Italian region of in Foggia — the spur of the considered a second-class Gargano peninsula and
Puglia, Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2017. Italian boot — decades mafia,” a top anti-mafia the other inland, and was
(Franco Cautillo/ANSA via AP) ago as an offshoot of the prosecutor, Franco Roberti, considered one of the most
By COLLEEN BARRY hit. Naples Camorra, expand- told RAI state radio. He said dangerous in Italy for the
Associated Press The president of the Foggia ing from asserting control in it has been linked to 300 number of unsolved killings
MILAN (AP) — Officials in It- province of Puglia, where agriculture to tourism and murders over the past three and the pervasive climate
aly’s southern Puglia region the shootings occurred the drug route from Alba- decades, 80 percent un- of “omerta,” an unwritten
on Thursday demanded a near an abandoned rail- nia. solved. rule of silence, among the
more concerted response way station on Wednes- The Italian parliament has In Wednesday’s hit, a local population.q
to a lesser-known orga- day, is calling for more uni-
nized crime syndicate, the formed law enforcement
day after gunmen killed and more highly trained in-
four people in an ambush, vestigators to combat the
including two people who Foggia crime syndicate,
happened to witness the which is blamed for 17 kill-

Turkey:

Russian national detained

over planned drone attack

By JOSEPH ATAMAN ordered him formally arrest-
Associated Press ed pending a trial.
ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish Bakiev also intended to at-
authorities have detained tack the local Alevi com-
a Russian national and sus- munity in Adana city, the
pected Islamic State group statement said. It said he
militant for allegedly plan- was affiliated with IS and
ning a drone attack on U.S. had previously traveled to
aircraft at Turkey’s Incirlik air Syria. The Alevi religious mi-
base, police said Thursday. nority is an offshoot of Shia
Renad Bakiev was de- Islam and is the largest reli-
tained in the southern city gious group in Turkey after
of Adana over suspicions Sunnis. IS regards Alevis as
that he plotted to crash an heretics. Bakiev appealed
American aircraft or attack for 2,800 Turkish Lira (nearly
the Incirlik air base using a $800) from other militants
drone, Adana police said on the Telegram messag-
in a statement. ing application, which IS
Turkish private news agen- sympathizers use widely, to
cy Dogan said a court later buy a drone, police said.q