The ease of acquiring a gun in Naples and the popularity of mafia-style gang culture are fueling the deaths of young people, reports Magyar Nemzet.
Police Commander Maurizio Agricola told reporters this after a raid on Sunday following the shooting of yet another teenager, 18-year-old Arcangelo Correra, was shot in the head on the streets of Forcella. The bullet hit him at close range, indicating an execution.
More than 100 policemen, gendarmes, and tax inspectors took part in the action in the Vicaria-Mercato and Forcella districts. Weapons, ammunition and drugs were seized from homes with the help of drug-detecting dogs. Some 17 vehicles were also seized; most of the drivers did not have a driver’s license, traffic permit or insurance.
Elsewhere, shops were inspected, with penalties imposed for breaches of trade and health regulations.
The police were sending a message to restore order and security, and to reassure the population by emphasizing their presence, said Agricola. Three hundred people took part in a protest against the Camorra crime gang in Naples on Saturday.
As to the latest victim, a friend rushed him early Saturday morning to the nearby Pellegrini Hospital, known as the “hospital for those who have been shot” because hardly a day goes by without a gunshot victim coming in.
Arcangelo Correra has no criminal record, but several of his relatives and acquaintances are connected to the Camorra. The perpetrator, a 19-year-old young man, voluntarily reported himself to the police, claiming that he had accidentally shot Arcangelo while testing the weapon.
In 2020, the perpetrator’s 17-year-old brother was shot by a policeman during a robbery.
Shootings among young people have become common in Naples, and Arcangelo was the third young victim to be shot on the street in the past two weeks. In March 2023, Francesco Pio Maimone was shot dead by a 19-year-old in the open street apparently because he had dirty shoes.
In August 2023, 24-year-old Giovan Battista Cutoló came to the defense of his friend in a street dispute over the parking of a motorcycle, before a 16-year-old boy fired three shots at him. And in October of this year, 15-year-old Emanuele Tufano was killed with a gun. According to the official report, he and his companions participated in a motorcycle robbery in the territory of another gang, who then opened fire on them.
Then on Nov. 2, 19-year-old Santo Romano was shot by a 17-year-old boy because of a dirty shoe. According to the Naples police chief, access to weapons is too easy and official action alone is not enough.
“It is a social problem, all institutions, schools and families need to unite, otherwise we are fighting a weak battle, we cannot put a policeman on every square meter,” Agricola stated.
He added that neither the lives of others nor their own are of any value to young people; they drive around with guns on their belts and shoot others for any trivial matter, which clearly indicates the mentality of local organized crime.
“The “Camorra model” has conquered the young people, the city must be disarmed,” said the writer Roberto Saviano, who knows the criminal organization well, as he wrote “Gomorrah,” which presents the world of the Camorra to the general public, and has been living under protection since 2006.
In Sunday’s edition of Corriere della Sera, Saviano wrote that murder and possible prison terms are seen by youth gang members as a stepping stone to becoming men and real criminals. For young people imitating the adult members of the Camorra with brand-name clothes, expensive lifestyles, and weapons, even a “dirty shoe” by a stranger is enough to prove that they can do anything.
According to Roberto Saviano, the Meloni government’s policy against organized crime has failed.
