Casalesi clan named on-the-run mobsters Alessandro Cirillo, Giuseppe Setola and Giuseppe Letizia as likely suspects who may have ordered the killings.

slaughter happened yesterday in a busy street in the southern Italian town of Castelvolturno near Naples, home to the Camorra, or local Mafia hitmen have gunned down six rivals in what politicians have condemned as one of the bloodiest clan war massacres in recent years.More than 100 shots were fired, leaving five dead and one in a serious condition under armed guard in hospital today.Passers-by dived for cover as at least three men arrived outside a shop selling ethnic products and opened fire inside on the group of Africans, killing three. TV footage showed bodies sprawled on the ground in pools of blood, and one victim shot dead in his car.
Witness reports suggested the killers had posed as policemen, describing a group of men wearing uniforms pulling up in a car with flashing lights.Police believe the murders are connected to drugs trafficking in the town, where African immigrants have recently begun dealing independently and stopped paying kickbacks to the Camorra.However, the Mafia is refusing to give up the drugs trade, which nets millions of pounds a year, to Nigerian gangs.Relatives of the dead men and immigrants protested yesterday, claiming the murders were racially motivated. One said of the victims: "They worked from morning till night and didn't even stop to eat. They were innocent, they were not criminals."Protestors later clashed with police and chanted "you Italians are all b******s, this is racism". But other residents said the murders were the latest of a series of Mafia crimes in the small town and hit out at the government for abandoning them to the Camorra.Yesterday, shadow interior minister Marco Minniti said: "The dramatic slaughter is a challenge without precedent, a massacre perpetrated with brutality and impudence to show that Camorra organisations can do what they want in that area and that they are in command."This is intolerable. What is happening here involves the entire country, and the response must be immediate and severe."CASTELVOLTURNO near Naples is home to one of the most feared Camorra outfits, the Casalesi clan. Its criminal empire was exposed in Roberto Saviano's worldwide bestseller Gomorrah, adapted as a film that won the second prize at Cannes this year.
Police are linking this shooting to the murder of Antonio Celiento, 53, who had convictions for theft and robbery and was linked to the Camorra. They have also named on-the-run mobsters Alessandro Cirillo, Giuseppe Setola and Giuseppe Letizia as likely suspects who may have ordered the killings.