Mob War? Camorra Boss Killed After Day at Beach

Marino, "the stump" wasn't too

good with explosives.

This blog focuses primarily on American Cosa Nostra news, but we do make occasional exceptions, such as in this case. This story of an Italian Camorra hit is making headlines around the world.


The AP is reporting that a gunman shot and killed a Neapolitan Camorra boss as he was leaving a pleasant day at the beach to meet his family at their hotel in Terracina, a resort town in south Rome, authorities have revealed.

Gaetano Marino was hit by at least four shots to the head and another five or six to his back Thursday afternoon as he left the beach en route to his hotel, 60 miles south of Rome. His family had returned to the hotel ahead of him, police said. A common precaution, or was a scent of danger in the salt-tanged air?

The murder scene (from the NY Daily News).

The shooting caused panic along the crowded beach, and witnesses told police the gunman fled the scene in a small gray car driven by a second man. Police are in the midst of a manhunt for the shooter and companion, they said.

The New York Daily News added some detail about Marino: Age 48 when he died, he had headed the Scissionisti , or “secessionists” clan, "which had fought a bloody turf war in the streets of Naples for years with the rival Di Lauro clan over control of drug trafficking."

According to Wikipedia, it is actually called the Scissionisti di Secondigliano ("Secessionists of Secondigliano"). It is a Camorra clan from the Secondigliano district of Naples, headed by Raffaele Amato and Cesare Pagano.


"They are also known as "Spagnoli" (Spaniards) because of their endless trips ferrying cocaine from Galicia in Spain. Amato split from the Di Lauro clan and tried to assert the Scissionisti's control over drugs and prostitution rackets in the areas, that included Secondigliano and Scampia. Amato aligned himself with several Sistema leaders, as the Camorra is known in Naples, which included Gennaro Marino [R.I.P.] and Arcangelo Abete. The war, known as the Scampia feud (Italian "faida di Scampìa"), resulted in over 60 murders in 2004 and 2005. The feud caused widespread public revulsion against the Camorra and led to a major crackdown by the authorities," the website noted.

Marino, known as "Moncherino," or "stump," due to his losing both hands when a bomb he was trying to plant exploded too soon. "He stirred public outrage by appearing in the front row of a state TV audience this year while his 12-year-old daughter dedicated a song to him," the AP said.


Added the Huff Post: "The Camorra has not hesitated in the past to assassinate rivals or traitors in public places, and Marino's killing was being investigated as a hit by rivals, either inside or out of his own clan.


"In the last few years, street killings blamed on mobsters have occurred in the Lazio region, including Rome, fueling fears among investigators that the Camorra, as well as the `ndrangheta organized crime gang from southern Calabria, have moved some of their interests near Italy's capital.

"The Camorra in recent decades has been pushing up from Naples into Lazio, whose capital is Rome."



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In addition to Cosa Nostra, there is the Camorra, which is based in the Campania region around Naples; the 'Ndrangheta, based in Calabria, and the little-known Sacra Corona Unita in Puglia, the heel of the Italian boot.