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AUSTRIA-ITALY-CRIME
Austria father, son get jail terms over mafia arms supply
VIENNA, Oct 15, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – An Austrian court on Tuesday slapped jail
terms on a father and son for supplying hundreds of illegal weapons to the
Camorra neapolitan mafia in Italy.
A court in Klagenfurt gave the men, aged 74 and 48, jail terms of 24 and 20
months respectively.
They were found guilty of supplying 820 hand guns and dozens of
Kalashnikov assault rifles to the group since 2011.
When the trial started, the pair had denied knowingly dealing with the
mafia, insisting they had thought they were working with “vegetable traders”.
The pair can still appeal the verdict.
A Naples prosecutor announced in March that Italy and Austria had busted
an international arms trafficking ring that supplied the Camorra with guns,
including “weapons of war”, to start a war with other clans.
The year-long Italian investigation led to the arrests of 22 people,
including the Austrian gunsmiths and several Camorra couriers.
The Camorra is one of Italy’s three main organised crime groups, along
with Sicily’s Cosa Nostra, commonly known as the mafia, and the ‘Ndrangheta,
centred in the Calabria region.
BSS/AFP/RY/1825 hrs