Camorra boss Gennaro Cifarello captured in Tenerife

Naples - In the long chess game between the state and the Scampia Camorra, another top figure from the Cifariello-Cancello group has fallen. Yesterday, November 19, Spanish investigators placed Gennaro Cifariello in handcuffs. He was captured in Tenerife after being on the run since last September.

For the District Anti-Mafia Directoratefrom Naples is one of the top exponents of the cartel linked to the Amato-Pagano clan, the wing that for years has bloodied the streets of Scampia and Secondigliano with feuds, extortion and the management of public housing.

With his arrest, only boss Elia Cancello, now considered the clan's most important fugitive, remains on the run from the group's historic ranks.

The arrest came at the end of a joint operation led by the Tenerife National Police and the UDYCO (Unidad de Droga y Crimen Organizado), in collaboration with the Spanish Fugitive Active Search Team (FAST). A European arrest warrant, issued by the Neapolitan judiciary, was pending against Cifariello for aggravated kidnapping using mafia methods. This charge is part of the broader investigation into the Cancello/Cifariello group, which was responsible for tightly controlled territory north of Naples, including drug dealing hubs and military control of public housing.

Cifariello disappeared into thin air on September 29, the day the Naples Flying Squad executed a major arrest warrant against nine alleged members of the criminal gang.

That measure reveals the clan's most brutal side: according to the prosecution, its leaders and underlings targeted a public housing apartment regularly assigned to a family from Scampia. First, threats were made at the door, with clan members stationed under the building armed with clubs, then a quantum leap in violence: the owner of the property was kidnapped, held hostage until his relatives handed over the keys and gave up their home. This was the approach of "house lords," who manage public housing as a commodity of power, deciding who can live there and who must leave.

The investigation was coordinated by the Naples Anti-Mafia District Directorate, which for years has focused on the Amato-Pagano clan and its branches in the Scampia and Secondigliano neighborhoods. Investigators from the Flying Squad, supported by FAST Italia, part of the International Police Cooperation Service of the Central Criminal Police Directorate, followed detailed leads, contacts, and financial connections until they narrowed down the fugitive's identity. The evidence gathered led to a focus on Spagna, a historic safe haven for Camorra fugitives.

Collaboration with the Spanish authorities then provided the breakthrough. Joint investigations between Italy and Spain led to the identification of a person considered very close to Cifariello. By tracing his movements, investigators reconstructed the route that led to the city of Tenerife.

There, thanks to prolonged stakeout and surveillance by the Policia Nacional, the fugitive was located and arrested, leaving him unable to escape. This arrest, in the ongoing investigation into the Cancello/Cifariello group, removes another piece of the Scampia cartel's leadership and now leaves the spotlight on a single major name still in the shadows: Elijah Cancello, the boss who remains the last major fugitive of the clan.