A HIT IN THE FAMILY: 19 Year-Old Mobster Niece Is Shot Dead in Italian Nightclub – Authorities Suspect a Settling of Scores Between Rival Mafia Clans
The blood-feud between criminal gangs in the Italian Puglia region is not sparing family members – not even women and children.
A young woman was shot dead in a nightclub in what authorities believe is part of a suspected war between two Mafia families.
Telegraph reported:
“Antonia Lopez, 19, the niece of a murdered mobster, was shot at the Bahia Beach nightclub in the historic town of Molfetta in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Lopez’s killing is believed to have been the result of a furious argument or a settling of scores between rival clans involved in drug trafficking, extortion and other crimes in Puglia.”
Yesterday (23), 21 year-old Michele Lavopa, was arrested as a suspect in the shooting by the Carabinieri and remanded in custody.
Lopez, the victim, had no criminal record herself, but she was connected to one of the region’s leading crime families.
“One of her uncles, Ivan Lopez, was murdered three years ago, shot dead near his house in the nearby port of Bari while riding a scooter. Another uncle, Francesco Lopez, became a ‘pentito’ or turncoat, co-operating with police and investigators.”
The Lopez brothers are members of the Strisciuglio clan, who happens to be at war with the rival Parisi-Palermiti crew.
And that’s where the story gets peculiar, because four other young people were injured in the shooting, including Eugenio Palermiti, an alleged member of the Palermiti clan.
So what’s a Strisciuglio woman doing with a Palermiti ‘soldier’? Was there a Romeo and Juliet-type affair going on between sworn enemies? Or was it the old adage ‘Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer’?
And it wasn’t any member, either: Palermiti’s father is serving a life sentence in prison for murder, and his grandfather is said to be the long-time head of the gang.
Italian authorities fear an escalation in the conflict, with vengeance being sought for Lopez’s murder. A specialist anti-mafia unit is investigating the killing.
“Michele Emiliano, the governor of Puglia, said: ‘This is the umpteenth clash between criminal gangs who are fighting to control nightclubs and drug dealing’.
Michele Picaro, an MEP from the region, said: ‘We’ve reached the point where people’s safety is being put seriously at risk, even in places of entertainment and leisure. Our cities must not fall into the hands of criminal bands’.”
The Mafia gangs in Puglia once made their money from reasonably innocuous smuggling of cigarettes from Albania, but now they have graduated to trafficking drugs, and investing the proceeds in legitimate businesses across the region.
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