It’s All in the Family for Mafia Clan in a Village in Italy
An election for village mayor got front-page treatment in Italian national newspapers Tuesday after it was won by a member of a Mafia family that has run the council almost without interruption since 1960.
Carmine Graziano, who ran as a Social Democrat, is the fifth member of the clan to be elected mayor of Quindici, a poor village of 3,000 people in the Naples hinterland.
The first Graziano mayor, Fiore, was shot to death by hit men at a soccer match in the 1970s, and the next three were all removed from office by presidential decree for reasons of public order.
One of the three, Carmine’s cousin Raffaele, is on the run from charges of robbery, extortion and membership in the Camorra, the Naples region version of the Sicilian Mafia.
Carmine Graziano, who has no criminal record and has denied knowledge of the Camorra, said his triumph was political. “It is a victory for the party, not the clan,” he said.
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