Di Lauro clan

The Di Lauro clan is an Italian crime clan, part of the Camorra in Naples. The clan operates in the neighbourhoods of Secondigliano, Scampìa, Miano, Marianella, Piscinola, and in the adjacent municipalities of Casavatore, Melito, Arzano, Villaricca and Mugnano (all in the province of Naples). The head of the clan is Paolo Di Lauro (known as "Ciruzzo il milionario"), from Via Cupa dell'Arco, in Secondigliano.^[1]

The Italian Direzione Distrettuale Antimafia ("Antimafia District Directorate") first investigated the clan in 2002, which led to the imprisonment of its most influential members, including Abbinate clan boss Raffaele "Papale e Marano" Abbinate, who was aligned with Di Lauro, but Paolo Di Lauro managed to stay free.^{[citation needed]} Despite this setback, the clan increased its power and the arrested members where replaced by several of Di Lauro's ten sons: Cosimo (b. 1973), Ciro (b. 1978) and Marco (b. 1980).^[2] At the same time a the coalition was strengthened with other clans in the Secondigliano Alliance. The clan's "old guard" lost its power, and some of Di Lauro's former faithful allies formed a rival alliance (Scissionisti di Secondigliano) and started a bloody power struggle in 2004, known as the Scampia feud.

The Di Lauro clan controls drug trafficking in his Neapolitan areas as well as in most of southern Italy.^{[citation needed]} Its affiliates numbered hundreds (perhaps thousands) once, though now they seem to have reduced.^{[citation needed]}

Paolo Di Lauro became a fugitive in 2002 and left the business to his sons Cosimo and Vincenzo (b. 1975).^[3][4] Ciro Di Lauro was arrested in late 2004, followed by Cosimo in January 2005 after the police launched a series of operations against the warring factions in the Scampia feud. In September 2005, police arrested the patriarch of the clan Paolo Di Lauro.^[1] Vincenzo Di Lauro was arrested in March 2007,^[5] and the latest of the sons still on the run, Nunzio Di Lauro, was arrested on March 3, 2008.^[6]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Criminal boss is captured in Italy, International Herald Tribune, September 17, 2005
2. ^ (Italian) E ora è caccia a Marco e Nunzio, Il Roma, March 28, 2007
3. ^ Gang's Deadly Feud Plagues Naples, Los Angeles Times, February 17, 2005
4. ^ In Naples, a Mob Family Feud, The Washington Post, February 8, 2005
5. ^ (Italian) Arrestato il figlio del boss Di Lauro, La Repubblica, March 27, 2007
6. ^ (Italian) Arrestato Nunzio Di Lauro, l'ultimo rampollo di «Ciruzzo 'o milionario», Corriere del Mezzogiorno, March 3, 2008

• Di Meo, Simone (2008). L'impero della camorra. Vita violenta del boss Paolo Di Lauro. Rome: Newton & Compton. ISBN 8854109924. 

External links

• (Italian) Clan Di Lauro: ecco il menu dei boss, TG1, October 23, 208 on YouTube