Suspected Mafia link in courthouse bombing

A homemade bomb has exploded outside a courthouse in the southern Italian city of Reggio Calabria.

The device, a gas canister with explosives on top, went off early on Sunday morning when no-one was around. Police say CCTV cameras captured two masked men on a scooter placing the bomb.

The city’s public prosecutor Salvatore Di Landro said:’‘Certainly the mafia has been touched somewhere, if they have decided to strike a court that normally only has a marginal role in the struggle against organised crime.’‘

The southern port city of Gioia Tauro near to Reggio Calabria is seen as a major drugs crossroads. The region is home to some of Italy’s most powerful criminal groups, known collectively as the ‘Ndrangheta.

The gangs, which emerged from the Sicilian mafia in the 1990s, had some 2 million euros worth of assets confiscated last week and authorities believe the attack may be linked.

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