Nicola Cocò Campolongo, 3,
was murdered in January 2014 in the Calabrian town of Cassano
allo Ionio because his grandfather Giuseppe Iannicelli, a
convicted drug smuggler, intended to testify for the State in an
investigation on Calabria's 'Ndrangheta mafia, according to a
report published on Wednesday by the local newspaper Gazzetta
del Sud.
The toddler was murdered together with his grandfather and
the man's Moroccan girlfriend Betty Taoussa.
Iannicelli had reportedly written a letter to his wife, in
which he expressed the intention of cooperating with prosecutors
investigating a local 'Ndrangheta gang operating in Cassano
Ionio.
The gang, the only ethnic Roma 'Ndrangheta clan, manages a
major heroin and cocaine smuggling operation between South
America and Calabria through the Netherlands, according to
investigators.
The newspaper reported that Iannicelli's brother Battista
first spoke about the letter to state attorneys whose
investigation has just led to the arrest of 33 people.
The letter has however never been found, according to the
Gazzetta del Sud.
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