Italian police have arrested dozens of people in a series of anti-Mafia raids in the southern city of Naples. About 1,500 Carabinieri paramilitary police, backed by helicopters, sniffer dogs and bomb disposal squads, swooped in the early hours. They targeted two poor districts on the outskirts of the city and some surrounding villages.

Police tore down barricades from around some suspected mobsters’ homes. They also seized about 100,000 euros and 10 pistols. An outburst of violence in Naples has claimed 23 lives in the last month alone. Investigators say that the bloodshed stems from a power struggle within the Di Lauro clan – part of the Naples mafia, known as the Camorra.

Among the 53 people apprehended was Ciro di Lauro, son of the group’s alleged boss. The operation comes just days after two more men were killed in apparent Mafia murders, bringing the total number of deaths attributed to them to 120 in the past year. In March, a 14-year-old girl died when she was shot in the head while being used as a human shield by someone trying to flee a Mafia ambush.

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