48 suspected mobsters arrested in pre-dawn raids

Italian police arrested 48 people in pre-dawn raids today as part of efforts to crack down on a crime syndicate in the Naples area, crippling two rival clans, police said.

The suspects were charged with murder and attempted murder. They were also held on charges of drug trafficking and mafia association, officials from the Carabinieri paramilitary police in the southern Italian city said.

The people arrested were allegedly members of two rival clans of the Camorra, a crime syndicate based in the Naples area. The two clans have been vying for control of the drug trade in the town of Acerra, just outside Naples, since 2001, the Carabinieri officials said.

A separate turf war in Naples itself has claimed more than 130 lives since November, due to violence between the Camorra’s Di Lauro clan and a splinter group. That conflict is also believed to be over the local drug trade.

Today’s raids came hours after the arrest of the reputed head of another mob clan, Pasquale Sarno, who had been on the run since last year.

Sarno, 39, was arrested yesterday afternoon after being chased by police through the streets of Naples, authorities said in a statement. He went on the run in September 2004 after a court convicted him of drug trafficking and mafia association and sentenced him to over 11 years in jail.

Another convicted mobster who was with Sarno at the time of the arrest, Antonio Alzati, was also apprehended, the statement said.