Two feuding Italian families have apparently exported their violent clash from their Calabrian town to a west German city, where six people were executed in a mob ambush after a birthday party.
Authorities fear the violence will spread even further.
Italian and German police said a violent struggle between two 'Ndrangheta crime families -- the Pelle-Romeo clan and the Strangio-Nirta clan, both based in the Calabrian town of San Luca -- culminated early yesterday in the shooting deaths of six people, ranging in age from 16 to 38, in Duisburg, Germany.
All six victims were shot in the head.
The massacre in Germany "raises a lot of questions," said a Toronto-area police intelligence source.
"That's (questions) what everyone has right now. It will be interesting to see who that crew is associated with. That will tell us a lot.
"It depends on what the motive of the shooting was," he added. "Is it someone stepping on someone (else's) turf? Was it sending a message? Clearly, a massacre like this is orchestrated and several people are involved."
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It's a war that reportedly dates back to February 1991, when one clan tossed eggs at the members of the other clan during a festival. The incident escalated into a shooting.
The feud continued until about 2000 when it seemed to subside until Christmas 2006 when Maria Strangio, the wife of Strangio-Nirta leader Giovanni Nirta, was murdered.
German police said the victims had left a pizzeria yesterday after celebrating the birthday of Tommaso Venturi, 18. Venturi and five other people -- Francesco Pergola, 21, his brother Marco, 19, Marco Marmo, 25, Sebastiano Strangio, 38, and a 16-year-old boy -- were killed.
Police said about 70 shots were fired at a VW Golf and a white van. The slayings were filmed by a surveillance camera and a witness told police there appeared to have been two suspects.
Now that the once localized conflict has spread to Germany, Canadian law enforcement officers are studying the known details over concerns the war might spread here, something that has happened in the past.
A previous conflict from the town of Siderno, Calabria about 15 years ago claimed the life of Giovanni Costa, 38, a welder, who was slain in Vaughan in 1991 by mob hitman Riccardo "Frank" Rumbo.
Rumbo was later sentenced to 30 years in an Italian jail. Costa was not involved in the mob war, but was related to the leaders of one of the warring factions.
Costa lost three brothers in the war before he was killed. He fled to Canada with his family to escape the violence.
In the Toronto area, most if not all of the Calabrian organized crime, known as 'Ndrangheta, comes from the Siderno area in southern Italy.
Until authorities are able to study the connections and alliances between organizations in Italy and Canada, it will be difficult to determine if the conflict will have any effect here.
