Police have arrested the suspected leader of a Naples criminal clan involved in a vicious turf war that sparked dozens of murders last year, officials said today.

Hundreds of Italian police were arresting dozens of people around Naples today as part of a fight against a bloody mob turf war which has terrified the southern Italian city, police said.

Gunmen shot two men in a smoke shop and a third while he read a newspaper in his car in separate attacks today in neighbouring towns, as a crime clan's turf war continues to bloody the Naples area, state TV said.