Naples – An alarming picture emerges from the 2024 Report of the Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate (DIA), presented by director Michele Carbone.
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The increase in incidents of urban armed violence, often attributable to disputes between clans or affiliated youth gangs, represents one of the most worrying elements of the year. The situation in Naples is indicated as "emblematic", with 13 murders and 49 gunshot wounds attributable to Camorra contexts recorded in 2024 alone.
Of particular concern is the use of weapons by minors, often directly involved in bloody episodes. The director of the DIA cited the case of Santo Romano, killed on the night of November 2, 2024 in San Sebastiano al Vesuvio.
His death, which occurred following a trivial argument (“started from a kick on a valuable shoe”), at the hands of a minor from the Barra neighborhood, is a clear example of the “premature militarization of some youth mafia environments”.
The boy, in fact, allegedly pulled out a gun and fired several shots, wounding two young people, one of whom died shortly after in hospital.
Baby Gangs and Gun Culture: A Worrying Phenomenon
The phenomenon of baby gangs, composed of minors and young adults often coming from complex social realities, is considered “particularly worrying” by Carbone. These groups operate in violent ways, are involved in predatory crimes (especially street robberies) and in increasingly frequent episodes of murders and armed ambushes.
The DIA report retraces other emblematic cases that occurred in 2024:
Gennaro Ramondino (September 1, 2024, Pianura): The body of a twenty-year-old was found partly charred among burning brush, with obvious gunshot wounds. The shooter was apparently a minor for drug dealing reasons. The victim had already escaped an ambush in September 2022.
Emanuel Tufano (October 24, 2024, downtown Naples): A fifteen-year-old died following a murder that occurred in the city center.
Archangel Correra (November 9, 2024, Naples): An eighteen-year-old with no criminal record was hit in the head by a gunshot fired by a peer who later turned himself in, declaring that he had shot “for fun.”
Indifference and educational poverty feed the spiral
The long list of young victims, although in some cases unrelated to organized crime, "highlights the worrying, widespread culture of weapons among the very young and the most often reckless and unscrupulous use that is made of them". Carbone underlines that "what makes the situation even more alarming is the direct involvement of minors both among the victims and among those responsible for these crimes. The expansion of these dynamics is intertwined with school dropouts, educational poverty and the absence of legality in the urban outskirts".
The DIA report raises a serious alarm about the need for urgent and targeted interventions to combat the spread of violence and the involvement of very young people in criminal dynamics.
Article published on May 27, 2025 - 19:59 pm
