Camorra, two murders in 33 hours: the "panzarottari" mark in the new feud in the Northern area.

Naples - The 180 pages of the arrest warrant Dda Naples police have arrested ten alleged members of the Nobile di Afragola clan, better known as the "Panzarottari" group, accused of being the new dominant structure in the northern area of ​​Naples following the downsizing of the old Moccia and Pezzella clans.

According to the Naples Anti-Mafia Commission, the group established its presence in Afragola, Casoria, Caivano, and Frattamaggiore, managing drug dealing centers, racketeering, and "fire operations" to control the territory.

The order, carried out by the police and Carabinieri in Afragola and the surrounding area, alleges that the suspects were involved in a series of mafia-style attacks and ambushes that culminated in two murders: that of Antonio Vitale in Cardito and that of Pasquale Buono in Afragola, which occurred in just 33 hours in June 2025.

The investigation, coordinated by the DDA, relied on wiretaps, shadowing, analysis of video surveillance systems, and, most importantly, the statements of a newly convicted felon believed to be inside the group's decision-making mechanisms.

The newly repented Barra and the rise of the "Panzarottari"

The turning point came with the decision to collaborate with Giovanni Barra, arrested for mafia association along with Roberto Alfio Maugeri, believed to be a liaison figure with the organizations operating in Caivano.

Ten days after his arrest at the end of June, Barra embarked on a collaborative effort with the justice system and offered a detailed reconstruction of the Nobiles' criminal rise, describing them as a young, armed group capable of committing murder "even for a trivial reason," amid widespread violence.

According to the collaborator, in 2022 the “Panzarottari” they initially took orders from Maugeri Emanuele from prison, and then linked themselves to Giovanni Baratto, regent of Casoria, who aimed to give them control of Afragola and oust the rival nicknamed “'o Checco”, a trusted man of “'o Nennillo” Sasso.

Baratto's plan, which allegedly even asked the Nobiles to kill "'o Checco" without being executed, was part of a dense web of alliances and betrayals, in which the Afragola group learned to operate independently, directly managing the drug dealing hubs under the criminal umbrella of the Casoria area.

The feud, the ambushes and the Kalashnikov

Barra places the Nobiles' rise to power during a period of growing tensions, shootings, and intimidation in several municipalities in the northern hinterland. The collaborator recounts a meeting at the "Si" park in Casoria, in broad daylight, where Baratto showed up with a gun, flanked by his right-hand man, men close to the "Panzarottari" and a young man known as "Topolone" armed with a Kalashnikov, ready—according to the prosecution—to target the home of a woman linked to a drug dealing ring.

The commando, having climbed into a plum-colored Lancia Y, set off to "destroy the house" of a rival family, while Barra, who disputed the decision to shoot in broad daylight due to the risk of hitting children, abandoned the group shortly before the action.

His statements repeatedly mention the Kalashnikov, the iconic weapon of the "stese" (sweeps) in the northern area. This weapon was later seized in Caivano and, according to investigative reports, marks a qualitative leap in violence compared to the traditional pistol used in ambushes.

The Alliances: From Caivano to Frattamaggiore

After the affirmation on Afragola, the Noble They consolidated stable relationships with other Camorra groups operating in neighboring areas, particularly with the criminal organizations of Casoria, Caivano, and Frattamaggiore. The Nobile cousins—Antonio, born in 2000, known as "Spiedino," and Antonio, born in 2004, known as "Topolone"—emerged as young leaders capable of managing drug trafficking, extortion, and armed intimidation, providing men and equipment for joint operations.

On the Frattamaggiore side, the decisive alliance is with the Orefice group, historically traceable to the Pezzella clan of Cardito led by Francesco Pezzella, known as “Pan 'e ran”, a long-standing figure now in prison.

With the arrest of Michele Orefice, nicknamed "'o nir nir," and his lieutenants, his son Luigi takes over the reins of the organization and, at his father's direction, seeks new followers and a new balance of power, forging an alliance with the Nobiles just as the old leaders are in prison and the territory is being plagued by a series of "stese" (mafia raids) and score-settling.

Wiretaps and the fear of the repentant

Investigations reveal that Barra's name is well known to the "Panzarottari," who react with concern to the news of his collaboration with the law. In a conversation intercepted in a home in Afragola, Antonio Nobile, "Spiedino," and Alex Pollaro comment on a news article published on a local social media page, which reiterates the start of the collaboration of the collaborator known by the nickname "'o Scucciat."

Antonio Nobile, "Topolone," also intervenes remotely via video call in the same conversation. He comments on the press reports and shares the fear that the new informer's statements could become "overwhelming" evidence regarding extortion incidents and the armed dynamics in the area.

The picture that emerges is that of a group that, despite its youth, demonstrates a full awareness of the weight of the evidence gathered by investigators and the concrete risk of an accelerated repression by the state.

The first crime: the murder of Antonio Vitale

On June 10, 2025, shortly after 10:00 a.m., Antonio Vitale, 56, known as “Tonino 'o puorc,” was shot dead while driving his Nissan Micra on Via Tiziano, in Cardito, on the northern outskirts of Naples.

Vitale, a convicted felon and previously believed to be close to the Orefice gang, was hit by a hail of bullets fired by a commando unit in broad daylight, under the eyes of motorists and passersby, in an action that investigators immediately identified as Camorra-related.

The Frattamaggiore, Cardito, and Crispano area experienced a period of great instability in those months following the raids that targeted the Orefice group, an offshoot of the Pezzella clan, with a series of attacks targeting homes and targets linked to multiple factions.

In the previous weeks, gunshots had also reached the homes of Vitale's relatives, including the home of "Tonino 'o puorc" himself, a sign of a crescendo of retaliation that leads investigators to believe there is an internal war for control of drug dealing hubs and supply routes.

The white Audi and the thread that leads to the Nobiles

The first evidence linking the Cardito ambush to the Afragola group comes from analysis of video surveillance systems. The footage shows Vitale's Micra traveling along Via Tiziano, preceded by a black Smart and a white Audi Q2, which a few minutes earlier was also filmed on Via Enrico Fermi: the same car, the same license plate, the same route near the scene of the murder.

Four days later, during a search of the building where Antonio Nobile “Topolone” lives, the same white Audi SQ2, license plate FL175FE, was noticed parked in the condominium courtyard and identified as the car already seen in the Cardito images.

The cameras also show that, immediately after the murder, the Smart and Audi stopped a few meters from the scene of the ambush: a man got out of the compact car, and a woman dressed in black got out of the Audi, and they approached and spoke to each other casually, a sign of previous acquaintance.

Family ties and presence at the crime scene

The woman filmed driving the Smart has been identified as a relative of Antonio Nobile "Topolone" and living in the same building in Afragola where the Audi SUV was found. For the DDA, the connection between the family ties, the presence of the vehicles at the scene, and the discovery of the car in the courtyard of the Nobile home reinforces the suspicion of at least logistical involvement of the "Panzarottari" group in Vitale's ambush.

The investigation then systematically focused on the Nobile family, believed to be the linchpin of an armed group that could count on a range of supporters, front men, and individuals ready to provide resources and cover for the attacks. This strand intersects, in the Anti-Mafia files, with the other major homicide that shook the area just a day later: the killing of Pasquale Buono in the heart of Afragola.

The second murder: that of Pasquale Buono

On June 11, 2025, around 6:30 PM, Afragola was struck by another ambush, this time on the central Corso Italia. Two men riding a black scooter, both wearing full-face helmets, stopped in front of the Buono family's underwear shop. The passenger got out, pulled out his gun, and fired repeatedly at Pasquale Buono, who collapsed to the ground among the shelves and was finished off with further shots fired at close range.

The swift and ruthless action is typical of Camorra ambushes: attacks in broad daylight, in an open business, with no regard for witnesses, with the killers getting back on their scooters and disappearing into the traffic.

Buono, who had no criminal record but was identified by investigators as having close ties to the historic Moccia clan, was killed in front of his father, amidst extremely high tensions over the reshaping of the criminal network in Afragola and surrounding areas. Investigators released images of the attack the following day to further their investigation.

The scooter "for everyone" and the names of the Sant'Antonio park

In this case, too, video surveillance provided the first clue: the municipal cameras allowed the license plate of the black SH motorcycle used by the commando to be read, a vehicle registered to a rental company in Afragola, which, in turn, had subrented it to a small local agency.

The agency owner reports that the scooter had been formally rented to one individual, but that, after the first week, those who showed up to pay were "always different guys," all of whom gravitated towards the Sant'Antonio Park area, a Nobile stronghold.

When investigators showed the renter a photo album, the man recognized among those who had used the moped the names of Marco Castiello, Alex Pollaro, Biagio Esposito (arrested the other day) and three others who are not under investigation but all believed to be close to or inside the "Panzarottari" gang.

In particular, Castiello is identified as the individual filmed a few minutes before the ambush riding the scooter, while one of the three currently uninvestigated individuals is identified as the person who dropped off the vehicle in front of the rental company's house immediately after the murder.

The single thread behind the two ambushes

For investigators, the fact that the same group of young people from the Afragola area had used the scooter involved in the Buono murder in the days immediately preceding it, combined with the pattern already emerging from the Vitale ambush, indicates a possible common denominator behind the two crimes.

Both murders, given their nature and context, are interpreted as episodes in a broader war for control of drug trafficking and extortion in the northern area of ​​Naples, at a time marked by the "power vacuum" caused by major raids against established groups.

The arrest warrant thus captures the area's metamorphosis: from traditional clans to a mosaic of young, fluid, and ferocious gangs, capable of allying themselves with remnants of old organizations and using weapons of war to control drug dealing hubs and exert economic influence.

In the accounts of collaborators and in wiretaps, the Nobile "Panzarottari" emerge as the center of this new criminal order, protagonists – according to the prosecution – not only of the "stese" that bloodied Afragola, but also of the two murders that definitively turned the Anti-Mafia's spotlight on them.

(In the photo, the site of Pasquale Buono's murder and in the boxes, from left to right, Giuseppe Nobile, Antonio Nobile "Topolone", Antonio Nobile "Spiedino", the repentant Giovanni Barra and the two victims Antonio Vitale and Pasquale Buono)