Cirillo Kidnap - Aftermath

Aftermath

Cutolo overplayed his hand in the Cirillo affair. His former political protectors turned and provided their support to Carmine Alfieri, his main rival in the bloody 1981-83 Camorra war between Cutolo’s Nuova Camorra Organizzata (NCO) and the Nuova Famiglia. When Cutolo’s main ‘military’ chief, Vincenzo Casillo was killed in January 1983 by the allies of Alfieri, it was clear Cutolo not only had lost his political protection but the war as well. Many other Camorra gangs understood the shift in the balance of power caused by the death of Casillo. They abandoned the NCO and allied themselves with Alfieri.

The outcome of the Cirillo kidnap stood in sharp contrast to the kidnap of the Italian former Prime Minister Aldo Moro. When Moro was abducted by the Red Brigades in 1978, the Christian Democrats in government immediately took a hardline position: the "State must not bend" on terrorist demands. They refused to negotiate with the Red Brigades, while local Christian Democrats in Campania made every effort and even negotiated with criminals to release Cirillo, a relatively minor politician in comparison with Moro.