Founded by | Paolo Di Lauro |
---|---|
Founding location | Secondigliano |
Years active | 1980-present |
Territory | Secondigliano, Scampia, Miano, Marianella, Piscinola, Casavatore, Melito, Arzano, Villaricca, Mugnano |
Criminal activities | Murder, extortion, drug trafficking, smuggling, money laundering |
Rivals | Scissionisti di Secondigliano |
The Di Lauro clan is an Italian crime clan, part of the Camorra in Naples. The clan operates in the neighbourhoods of Secondigliano, Scampìa, Miano, Marianella, Piscinola, and in the adjacent municipalities of Casavatore, Melito, Arzano, Villaricca and Mugnano (all in the province of Naples). The head of the clan is Paolo Di Lauro (known as "Ciruzzo il milionario"), from Via Cupa dell'Arco, in Secondigliano.
The Italian Direzione Distrettuale Antimafia ("Antimafia District Directorate") first investigated the clan in 2002, which led to the imprisonment of its most influential members, including Abbinate clan boss Raffaele "Papale e Marano" Abbinate, who was aligned with Di Lauro, but Paolo Di Lauro managed to stay free. Despite this setback, the clan increased its power and the arrested members were replaced by several of Di Lauro's ten sons: Cosimo (b. 1973), Ciro (b. 1978) and Marco (b. 1980). At the same time, the coalition was strengthened with other clans in the Secondigliano Alliance. The clan's "old guard" lost its power, and some of Di Lauro's former faithful allies formed a rival alliance (Scissionisti di Secondigliano) and started a bloody power struggle in 2004, known as the Scampia feud.
The Di Lauro clan controls drug trafficking in his Neapolitan areas as well as in most of southern Italy. Its affiliates once numbered hundreds (perhaps thousands), though they now seem to have been reduced.
Paolo Di Lauro became a fugitive in 2002 and left the business to his sons Cosimo and Vincenzo Di Lauro (b. 1975). Ciro Di Lauro was arrested in late 2004, followed by Cosimo in January 2005 after the police launched a series of operations against the warring factions in the Scampia feud. In September 2005, police arrested the patriarch of the clan Paolo Di Lauro. Vincenzo Di Lauro was arrested in March 2007, and the latest of the sons still on the run, Nunzio Di Lauro, was arrested on March 3, 2008.