Mafia’s killing of 3-year-old shocks Italy

ROME: A horrific triple murder in southern Italy in an apparent score-settling between rival mafia drug gangs has shocked the country, with a chorus of outrage over the youngest victim – a 3-year-old boy.

The boy, a man believed to be his grandfather and a woman believed to be his grandfather’s girlfriend were found in a burnt-out car in an isolated spot in the Calabria region on Sunday.

“How can you kill a small human being like this? This goes beyond any limit,” said prosecutor Franco Giacomantonio.

“This is something unprecedented, horrific. In many years of work, I think this is the most vicious murder I have ever been faced with,” he said.

Investigators believe the three were killed and their car was then set on fire.

Nunzio Galantino, bishop of the mountain town of Cassano allo Ionio where the three were from, prayed beside the car as police removed the remains.

“I am shocked by the level of violence shown by whoever carried out these killings. How can you not hear the cries of a little boy?” Galantino said.

The man is believed to be Salvatore Iannicelli, who was under house arrest for drug trafficking and had gone missing on Saturday. Iannicelli had also been charged in 2012 with kidnapping and sexual violence against a woman.

The boy, believed to be Nicola Campolongo, known as “Coco”, is the son of Iannicelli’s daughter, who is in prison for drug trafficking along with the boy’s father.

The killing was seen as another sign of the end of the historic honour code for the local ’Ndrangheta mafia that once spared children, women and the elderly.

The powerful and secretive ’Ndrangheta plays a leading role in the global cocaine trade. – Sapa-AFP