Foggia mafia 'emulating 'Ndrangheta' says DIA

(ANSA) - Bari, January 17 - The Foggia mafia is "emulating" the Calabrian-based 'Ndrangheta mafia in its "expansionistic" goals, and is cultivating a similar 'middle ground' between mafiosi, businessmen, professionals and civil servants as Italy's richest and most powerful mafia, the National Anti-Mafia Investigative Directorate (DIA) said in its six-monthly report to parliament Friday.
    A bomb was set off early on Thursday at a day centre for the elderly in the southern city of Foggia owned by a group that employs a witness in a investigation into the local mafia, sources said.
    It was the latest in a long series of mafia attacks including turf-war murders by the Foggia mafia, part of the Sacra Corona Unita (SCU, Holy United Crown) mafia in the region of Puglia.
    Cristian Vigilante, the human resources manager of the Sanita' Piu' nursing-home group that owns the day centre, was also the target of a powerful bomb attack that devastated his car and damaged other vehicles on January 3.
    Thursday's bomb at the 'Il Sorriso di Stefano' centre damaged the exterior of the complex and some parked cars.
    It went off while a cleaner was inside working.
    The woman was said to be physically unhurt but was taken to an emergency room as she was suffering shock.
    "This is clearly the follow-up from the last time," said Vigilante as he arrived at the scene.
    Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese is set to send an extraordinary contingent of police to the province of Foggia, and she confirmed the "state's will to fight all forms of criminality with the utmost determination".
    The SCU is Italy's fourth and smallest mafia.
    The other three are 'Ndrangheta from Calabria, Cosa Nostra from Sicily, and the Camorra in Campania.
    'Ndrangheta has outstripped its Sicilian cousins in becoming Italy's richest and most powerful mafia, thanks to a chokehold on the South American-European cocaine trade.