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Deadly ambush in Puglia puts spotlight on Italy’s 4th mafia

A Carabinieri Italian police officer looks at the body od a man who, according to Italian news agency ANSA, was among 4 people killed by gunmen in an apparent Mafia hit, near Foggia, in the southern Italian region of Puglia, Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2017. ANSA quoted investigators as saying the first two victims were killed when another car carrying four or five people drove up alongside it and opened fire, while the other two victims were brothers who apparently witnessed the murders and were chased down by the killers and shot to death. (Franco Cautillo/ANSA via AP)
A Carabinieri Italian police officer looks at the body od a man who, according to Italian news agency ANSA, was among 4 people killed by gunmen in an apparent Mafia hit, near Foggia, in the southern Italian region of Puglia, Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2017. ANSA quoted investigators as saying the first two victims were killed when another car carrying four or five people drove up alongside it and opened fire, while the other two victims were brothers who apparently witnessed the murders and were chased down by the killers and shot to death. (Franco Cautillo/ANSA via AP) A Carabinieri Italian police officer looks at the body od a man who, according to Italian news agency ANSA, was among 4 people killed by gunmen in an apparent Mafia hit, near Foggia, in the southern Italian region of Puglia, Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2017. ANSA quoted investigators as saying the first two victims were killed when another car carrying four or five people drove up alongside it and opened fire, while the other two victims were brothers who apparently witnessed the murders and were chased down by the killers and shot to death. (Franco Cautillo/ANSA via AP)

By Associated Press 1 min read

MILAN (AP) – Italy’s interior minister was traveling to a southern city a day after four people were gunned down in a mafia killing that has focused attention on an underestimated crime network in the Puglia region.

Authorities say a local crime boss was the main target when killers traveling in a car opened fire on another vehicle in Foggia, killing the boss and his driver. The killers then chased down another vehicle with two farmers who happened to witness the hit, killing them.

The ambush brought to 17 the number of mafia murders this year in the Foggia province, the spur of the Italian boot.

Top anti-mafia prosecutor Franco Roberti told RAI state radio Thursday that “this very ephemeral form of criminality in Foggia has been too long considered a second-class mafia.”