Troops to combat mafia in Italian city

Reggio Calabria (Italy), Oct 7 (IANS/AKI) A top government representative wants to deploy soldiers in this southern Italian city after a portable rocket launcher was sent to the city’s chief prosecutor.

Luigi Varratta in a meeting of security officials Wednesday proposed using troops to regain control of areas with a strong presence of the Calabrian mafia or Ndrangheta.

Police Tuesday discovered an unloaded M80 bazooka, a portable rocket launcher, under a mattress following an anonymous tip-off.

The caller told police to look near the city’s anti-mafia HQ for “a surprise” for chief prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone.

“The committee unanimously supported my proposal to ask for the presence of the army,” Varratta told reporters after the meeting.

“In this present moment, the area needs this presence, especially in light of yesterday’s (Tuesday) incident,” he said.

Varatta said the army presence would “not be very visible”. “There won’t be soldiers on the streets, they’ll just be guarding key buildings,” he said.

Pignatone and another judge who has been threatened, Prosecutor General Salvatore Di Landro, backed Varratta’s proposal.

A bomb in August damaged the entrance to Di Landro’s apartment in the city centre. blowing out windows in the vicinity but causing no injuries. In June, Di Landro’s driver found the bolts on his car tyres unscrewed from the axel.

Pignatone receive a letter containing three bullets sent to him by post in late May.

A successful crackdown against the Ndrangheta has sparked this year’s campaign of intimidation, according to investigators. It began in January with a firebomb that damaged the entrance to Reggio Calabria’s main courthouse, they said.

–IANS/AKI