Police have DNA from second Duisburg Mafia killer

Munich — Police have obtained the DNA of a second suspect in last year’s gangland slaying of six outside an Italian restaurant in the German city of Duisburg, media reports said.

Neither suspect has been caught yet. Germany has issued an international arrest warrant for pizzeria operator Giovanni Strangio, 29, suspected of being a member of the Strangio-Nirta clan within the ‘Ndrangheta crime network.

Focus magazine named the other suspect as Strangio’s brother in law Giuseppe Nirta, born 1973. Focus said he was already sought internationally on other charges.

In a news release Saturday in advance of Monday publication, Focus said police had recovered what they believed to be genetic traces from Nirta in a black Renault Clio car found abandoned last October in Belgium.

Last August’s shooting in Duisburg, Germany’s worst mafia-style massacre, is believed to have been a hit on the rival Pelle-Romeo clan of Calabrian mobsters.

Germany put out an all-points alert for the black car after the late August 14 murders.

It finally showed up when a suspicious resident of Ghent, Belgium told police in October of a Clio left parked for several days with its keys in the ignition.

Focus quoted a Duisburg prosecutor saying the car contained "numerous traces," while sources added these included DNA on the passenger seat that did not match with Strangio and was thought to be from his accomplice.

According to Focus, Nirta is wanted in Italy on drugs and organized crime charges.

It said Nirta’s fingerprints had been found in a German apartment shared with Strangio just before the killing.

However attempts to obtain DNA from close Nirta relations as a scientific check had been fruitless. Italian police had not replied to a request sent in November 2007.

Witnesses saw two attackers fire about 70 bullets at six victims aged 16 to 39 as they were leaving the Da Bruno restaurant.

DPA with Expatica