(AKI) - Police in the southern Italian province of Caserta on Friday arrested four alleged Mafia members suspected of the brutal murder of six African immigrants.One suspect was arrested by police earlier this week and another remains at large.
The gang is believed to have been operating the Mafia or Camorra's extortion racket in the province of Caserta, just north of Naples.
The Italian government on Tuesday announced it would send 500 soldiers to the area to help fight organised crime after the immigrants were shot dead outside a tailor's shop by Kalashnikov-wielding hitmen.
The massacre occurred in the town of Castelvolturno which has a large number of immigrants and may have been part of a local turf war caused by African drug pushers muscling in on Mafia territory. There were also suggestions that they had refused to pay 'protection money' to their Mafia godfathers.
Hitmen shot dead gambling arcade owner, Antonio Celiento, in the nearby coastal resort of Baia Verde in the same province on the same day as the massacre, after he refused to pay 'protection money' to the Camorra.
Police arrested Camorra-linked suspect Alfonso Cesarano in Baia Verde on Monday in connection with the Castelvolturno massacre.
Cesarano was under house arrest at his parents' home at the time, Italy's Interior Minister, Roberto Maroni, said.
Cesarano has a police record for drugs and has strong ties to the Camorra, for whom he has done several jobs, the head of police in Caserta, Carmelo Casabona, told journalists on Monday.