Investigators are convinced there will be a major vendetta for this week's slaying of six people in Germany, the latest victims of a feud within the Calabrian organized crime syndicate 'Ndrangheta.
"We don't have a crystal ball and so can't say when or where, but it is obvious that there will be an act of revenge," Reggio Calabria Assistant Prosecutor Nicola Gratteri said on Friday.
"In the past, feuds have ended when one of the warring parties is eliminated or when a powerful and neutral figure within 'Ndrangheta steps in an imposes a truce," he added.
Meanwhile, police continued to search homes in San Luca, the town where the feud between the Nitra-Strangio and Vottari-Pelle families began in 1991, in a bid to thwart any immediate acts of vendetta.
Investigators are also drawing up a list of possible revenge targets, mostly relatives of the Vottari-Pelle clan living in San Luca and neighboring towns.
There is particular concern over the upcoming local Feast of the Madonna di Polsi which takes place on September 2, since many feud killings take place on important holidays.
The 15-year-old San Luca feud re-exploded after a seven-year lull last Christmas when gunmen ambushed the reputed leader of the Nitra-Strangio clan, Giovanni Nitra.
He escaped unharmed from the attack but his wife, Maria Strangio, was killed.
Investigators are convinced that Wednesday's gangland slayings in Duisburg was in revenge for the Christmas attack. This because one of the victims Marco Marmo, 25, was suspected of being part of the group which staged the attempt on Nitra's life.
Investigations in Germany are focusing on the composite drawing of a man believed to have driven the getaway car after the killings outside the restaurant Da Bruno.
German police said they have already received a number of calls after a drawing of the alleged driver was published by the media.
Police in Italy are comparing the drawing to mug shots they have on file but at present have been unable to identify him.
This may be because he is a relative newcomer to organized crime, they said.
Although police are convinced that Marmo had been the intended victim of the Duisburg slayings, they are unsure why the other five were also killed.
The six were in the restaurant to celebrate the 18th birthday of one of the victims, Tommaso Venturi. The other victims were Francesco Giorgi, who would have turned 18 later this month, brothers Francesco and Marco Pergola, 22 and 20 respectively, and Sebastiano Strangio, 39, a co-owner of Da Bruno.
The Pergola brothers were the sons of a retired policeman and had been living in Duisburg for several years, working at Da Bruno, police said.
Marmo arrived in the German city no earlier than Sunday, while the others either lived there or had been there for several days.
ORIGIN OF THE FEUD.
The feud began in February 1991 over a dispute about throwing firecrackers during the carnival celebrations in San Luca. Within hours two members of the Nitra-Strangio family were killed and two others injured.
This was followed by six tit-for-tat revenge killings up until 2000, when an apparent truce was struck.
The murder last Christmas of Maria Strangio was followed by five murders and six attempted murders. The last took place August 3 when Antonio Giorgi was shot dead on his property in Calabria.
According to Gratteri, the feud probably re-exploded over control of drug trafficking and other criminal activities in Calabria.
In a 2006 report from Italy's national crime bureau DIA, 'Ndrangheta was defined as is one of the most powerful criminal organizations in Italy, considered to be even more ruthless than Sicily's Cosa Nostra and the Camorra in the Naples region.
It holds a virtual monopoly on drug trafficking in Europe, especially for cocaine.
The name 'Ndrangheta derives from the Greek word andragathÃa which stands for heroism and virtue.
The syndicate is considered by some experts to be stronger than its Sicilian counterpart because the families involved are fewer and closer knit.
