Giovanni Strangio
Encyclopedia
Siderno
Siderno is a town and comune located in Calabria, Italy about 3 kilometres from Locri.Siderno Marina is the newer town located on the Ionian coast. It is popular with both Italian and foreign tourists and has a bathing beach....
in Calabria. A fugitive since 2007 included on the list of most wanted fugitives in Italy as well as in Germany, Strangio was arrested in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
on March 12, 2009.
San Luca feud
Strangio was wanted for the DuisburgDuisburg
- History :A legend recorded by Johannes Aventinus holds that Duisburg, was built by the eponymous Tuisto, mythical progenitor of Germans, ca. 2395 BC...
massacre on August 15, 2007, which made headlines worldwide. He was one of two gunmen that killed six men in front of the Da Bruno restaurant near the main railway station. More than 70 shots were fired. The carnage was part of a long-standing feud between two 'Ndrangheta clans from San Luca
San Luca
San Luca is a comune in the Province of Reggio Calabria in the Italian region Calabria, located about 100 km southwest of Catanzaro and about 35 km east of Reggio Calabria. The town is situated on the eastern slopes of the Aspromonte mountain, in the valley of the Bonamico river...
in Calabria, the Pelle-Vottari-Romeo and Strangio-Nirta clan.
He reportedly belongs to the Strangio-Nirta clan and is a relative of Maria Strangio, the wife of Giovanni Luca Nirta, who was killed on December 25, 2006, in an attempt to kill her husband. The killing revived the lingering San Luca feud
San Luca feud
The San Luca feud or Vendetta of San Luca is a long running conflict between two clans of the 'Ndrangheta—an Italian organized crime organisation—that began in 1991 in Italy's Calabria region in the village of San Luca....
that started in 1991. Strangio was arrested at the funeral of Maria Strangio where he appeared with a gun, presumably to kill members of the Pelle-Romeo clan. He was apprehended after a short exchange of fire in which he was slightly wounded. He was arrested and released in July 2007.
Duisburg massacre
Strangio returned to Germany where he ran "Tonis Pizza" in KaarstKaarst
Kaarst is a town in the district Rhein-Kreis Neuss, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.- Geography :Kaarst is located west of the city Neuss and east of Mönchengladbach .- Division of the town :Kaarst consists of 5 subdivisions...
in North Rhine-Westphalia. From his adopted hometown, Strangio allegedly prepared the attack against the rival clan that included Marco Marmo (1982–2007), among its members, and the chief suspect in the murder of Maria Strangio, who was killed in the bloodbath. Strangio quickly became a suspect. His apartment in Kaarst was searched and it appeared that he had left it in a hurry, leaving a large amount of money behind.
On December 18, 2007, four suspects in the Duisburg massacre were arrested, but Giovanni Strangio remained a fugitive until his arrest in March 2009. The second gunman is believed to be Strangio’s brother-in-law Giuseppe Nirta, also wanted for international cocaine trafficking, who was arrested on May 23, 2008.
Strangio is not to be confused with his namesake Giovanni Strangio, the owner of the Da Bruno restaurant, who, despite his family name, in fact belongs to the rival Pelle-Vottari-Romeo clan. He was arrested on August 30, 2007, in San Luca. His brother Sebastiano Strangio was one of the victims of the massacre in Duisburg.
Arrest and trial
Strangio was arrested on March 12, 2009, in DiemenDiemen
Diemen is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands with a population of around 24,000. Diemen is located in the province of North Holland directly to the east of Amsterdam within the capital's metropolitan area.-Geography:...
, a suburb of Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, where he was living in with his wife and son. His brother-in-law, Francesco Romeo, was arrested as well. He is to be extradited to Italy, not Germany, a Dutch court ruled on May 13, 2009. Italy seeks to prosecute him not only for the 2007 Duisburg killings, but also for membership of a criminal organization. Italy's reasons were more compelling than Germany's. The Duisburg killings had been the result of clashes between rival clans in the Italian town of San Luca. "Therefore the relation with Italy is bigger than the relation with Duisburg where the crime took place," according to the judge in Amsterdam.
The trial against the clans involved in the feud started on April 14, 2010, in Locri
Locri
Locri is a town and comune in the province of Reggio Calabria, Calabria, southern Italy. The name derives from the ancient Greek town Locris.-History:...
. Strangio followed the hearing via video link to his prison cell in Rome. On July 12, 2011, the Criminal Court in Locri sentenced Strangio to life imprisonment for the Duisburg killings.