Italian police arrest mafiso linked to “Duisburg massacre”

Reggio Calabria, Italy — In a fresh blow against the Calabrian mafia, Italian authorities arrested Tuesday a man who allegedly procured guns for a crime family involved in the so-called 2007 "Duisburg Massacre" in Germany.

Gianfranco Antonioli, 50, was picked up by police from his hideout, a house in the town of Aprilia some 30 kilometres south of Rome, officials said.

Antonioli is suspected of supplying guns to the Pelle-Vottari family, based in the town of San Luca, a notorious stronghold of the local mafia, the ‘Ndrangheta.

"He used his contacts in the former-Yugoslavia to acquire Kalashnikov assault rifles and his role was one of great strategic importance to the Pelle-Vottari family," police official Renato Cortese told the news television channel SKY TG24.

Authorities allege Antonioli’s gun-running accomplices included one of the six Italians murdered in Duisburg, Marco Marmo, as well as a Bosnian citizen, Elvire Marmarac, who is still at large.

The Duisburg shootings are believed to have been carried out by the Nirta-Strangio family which has been locked in a feud with the Pelle-Vottari since the early 1990s.

Police last week arrested Paolo Nirta, the brother-in-law of the chief suspect in the Duisburg shootings Giovanni Strangio who is still on the run.

DPA