Camorra, 21-Year-Old Murder Solved Thanks to DNA: 4 Arrests

A murder within an armed clash between clans is at the center of an investigation that led the investigating judge of Naples to issue four precautionary measures carried out by the Flying Squad of the Caserta police headquarters, together with those of Milan, L'Aquila, Parma and Nuoro. The crime contested to the suspects is aggravated murder in competition. The murder is that of Luca Famiano and dates back to July 1996. Prison order for Antimo Matroianni, Antimo Perreca, Achille Piccolo, 45 years old, and Achille Piccolo, 42 years old. The crime, solved thanks to technological progress, is part of the bloody feud that, in order to establish criminal dominance over Caserta and surrounding municipalities, saw two powerful Camorra factions clash for over twenty years, from 1986 to 2007: the Belforte group, also known as Mazzacane, of Cutolo extraction, and the Piccolo-Letizia group, also known as Quaqquaroni, allied with the Perreca clan of Recale.

The clash between the clans reached such levels of violence that, in January 1998, they induced the then prefect of Caserta to issue an 'anti-Camorra curfew', an ordinance, the first of its kind since the Second World War, which ordered the closure of bars and clubs in Marcianise after 20 pm for 22 days. Famiano was killed because he had passed from the Piccolo-Perreca to the rival Belforte. A group of people, hooded and armed with pistols and machine guns, waited around 8 am on a summer's day for the man in the car with his partner to leave their home in San Clemente di Caserta; behind him was another car carrying his brother-in-law, his girlfriend and two of his nieces. The hitmen opened fire on the cars with machine guns and pistols. Famiano died shortly after in hospital, and one of his nieces was seriously injured. After the raid, the killers disappeared in a dark, high-powered car, which later turned out to be a Lancia Thema stolen a few days earlier. During the escape, the car was noticed and chased by a police car, which, however, was unable to stop it due to the disturbance carried out by another car, whose driver was arrested.

The Lancia Thema was later located, now abandoned, but numerous objects were seized inside, including balaclavas and gloves, as well as some 7.62x39 ammunition, that of the Kalashnikov. Not far away, other material was later found, including two of the machine guns used in the ambush. Still more material, including some sponge sheets and a balaclava, was found inside the uninhabited apartment where the hitmen had prepared the ambush. In addition to the contribution of the statements of important collaborators of justice, thanks to the most recent technological advances in the field of forensic genetics, it was possible to extrapolate fragments of DNA on some biological samples found on the objects seized in the apartment and in the car. After more than 21 years, the isolated DNA corresponds to that of two of the four suspects, Mastroianni and Perreca, the latter also considered the instigator of the execution. Piccolo, 42, was arrested in an apartment in Milan; the others were notified of the measure in the prisons where they are already detained.