Anti-mafia police arrest two over 1992 Camorra mafia murder
(ANSA) – Naples, October 28 – Anti-mafia police arrested two people for a 1992 murder believed to have been part of a power grab by the Casalesi clan of the Neapolitan Camorra mafia, investigators said on Monday.
The suspects, Giuseppe Terracciano, 54, and Raffaele Cantone, 53, are accused of conspiring to kill Luigi Caiazzo, whose body was never found.
Cantone is also thought responsible for the death of Caiazzo’s father, Giuseppe Caiazzo.
The case of Luigi Caiazzo’s disappearance was unshelved from the cold case pile thanks to an informer’s testimony.
Naples anti-mafia police have reconstructed the dynamics of what they say was a fatal trap set by members of the Casalesi clan in pursuit of hegemony over the province of Caserta, a city north of Naples and an important Camorra stronghold.
The victims belonged to the incumbent New Organized Camorra (NCO), run from prison by the charismatic, ruthless crime superboss Raffaele Cutolo, investigators say. The Casalesi, headed by Francesco ‘Sandokan’ Schiavone – also in prison at the time – wanted to prevent an NCO comeback in Caserta province, according to investigators. Terracciano allegedly lured Luigi Caiazzo on a pretext to a farm in the town of Villa Literno, where Cantone shot him in the face, investigators say.
The body was reportedly thrown down a well and never recovered. The next day, Giuseppe Caiazzo was also killed at the same farm, and another man injured.
Anti-mafia police also seized the farm where the murders allegedly took place – currently a buffalo farm belonging to Terracciano – as well as a horse farm belonging to Terracciano’s wife, and bank accounts. Prosecutor Francesco Greco said the arrests were hastened after police overheard Terracciano ask his wife to tell the accountant to “sell everything” and saw that he gave a book of pre-signed checks to enable his wife to empty a bank account.
Police also suspect tax-dodging as assets and investments of the farm appear to be greater than the couple’s declared revenues would suggest.
Italian police last Thursday arrested Antonio Schiavone, brother of the Casalesi superboss nicknamed ‘Sandokan’ after Italy’s most popular literary pirate.
‘Sandokan’ has been in jail since 1998.
The Casalesi clan was featured in Roberto Saviano’s 2006 bestselling expose’ Gomorrah, and death threats by Casalesi bosses against Saviano have forced the 33-year-old writer into round-the-clock police protection.
Antonio Schiavone is accused of passing on his mobster brother’s order for a 1991 murder – another suspected power grab from a different clan than the NCO – and was taken into custody near his home in Giugliano, a town northwest of Naples.