Italy: Southern mayor’s killer allegedly hiding in Colombia

Salerno, 29 Nov. (AKI) – The alleged killer of southern Italian mayor Angelo Vassallo is a suspected mafia extortionist and drugs trafficker believed to be hiding in the Columbian city of Medellin, Naples daily Il Mattino reported on Monday. Vassallo’s bullet ridden body was found slumped in his car in the seaside town of Pollica in Italy’s Campania region on 6 September. Investigators immediately suspected the Naples mafia over his murder.
Vassallo’s 30-year-old assassin is believed to be sheltering with friends in Medellin, Columbia’s second largest city. Allegedly linked to a Salerno-based Naples mafia or Camorra clan, he fears individuals who ordered Vassallo’s killing are hunting him down to prevent him turning from state’s evidence should he be captured.

He was reportedly stabbed in August at a discoteque in the southern coastal resort of Camerota, near Pollica, after he robbed two drugs dealers in the port of Acciaroli, a few kilometres up the coast.

A prominent environmental campaigner, Vassello owned a local fishing business with his brother. Nicknamed the “fisherman-mayor” he had also been reported to police for alleged extortion and embezzlement.

Vassallo fought coastal pollution and illegal building in his municipality, located in Italy’s picturesque Cilento area of southern Campania.

Source: adnkronos.com