Arzano, the Camorra-held bunker-like street: the unpunished shell of Via Zanardelli.

Arzano – The Camorra's urban "fiefdom" is still closed after demolition of a crumbling building: the strange case of Via Zanardelli. In Arzano, Via Giuseppe Zanardelli is a narrow street used as a retreat by the Amato-Pagano clan today, and even before that, by Raffaele Cutolo and the Moccia clan. The scene of high-profile murders, it has transformed over the decades into a veritable ghetto due to the absence of institutions and even the slightest hint of normalcy.

The clan's fiefdom and the destroyed cameras

In this maze of narrow streets, for those unfamiliar with the recent history, the villa of a boss of the 167 clan, complete with garden and exotic plants, still stands before everyone's eyes and is peacefully inhabited (despite several press reports and unfulfilled ordinances). Opposite, the three-story building was demolished by the municipality at the request of Prefectural Commissioner Rodà, but this hasn't solved the traffic problem, with New Jersey barriers still blocking access.

But to understand that Via Zanardelli "hosts" Camorra operatives, the destruction of the city's video surveillance cameras just a few years ago is clear. Hooded men, with cars and license plates covered, carried out the raid. It's not hard to understand that the cameras were a nuisance to the bosses and clan members, who are also said to be running a thriving 24-hour drug dealing hub in the area. And closed streets like Via Annunziata, which intersects with Via Zanardelli, make life difficult for the Carabinieri and police, and protect the undergrowth of illegal activity with overhead power lines.

The Shadow of the NCO and the Killer "O' Pazzo"

The story that has shaped the historic center dates back so long that it's still talked about in the city. The firefight between the police and Sergio Bianchi, aka O'Pazzo, in 1983, a ruthless hitman working closely with Pasquale Scotti—head of the military wing of Raffaele Cutolo's group—who had made him the Arzano area chief, is still vivid today.

According to the many accounts of collaborators with justice, he would go out in the morning and collect the "bounty" on each member of the New Family, "taking three million per corpse and killing two or three a day," the now-repentant boss Franco Pino would say of him. Further bolstering his bad reputation are the lyrics Pasquale Barra dedicated to him in "O animale."

Barra would later say of Bianchi during a trial: "He shot like a god and didn't give a damn about anyone." In 1981, court documents state, "to escape his enemies and the police, O Pazzo spent the winter in Calabria with three other Camorristi and placed himself at the service of Nelso Basile, the boss of San Lucido."

The trail of blood in the historic center

Via Zanardelli, in 1988, was the scene of another massacre: the killing of the brothers Agrippino and Giuseppe Aruta, linked to the Moccia clan, and many others.