Luigi Giuliano - War With The NCO

War With The NCO

The Giuliano clan was on such bad terms with rival mobster Michele Zaza that it launched an attack against his nephew Pasquale in December 1979. The Giuliano clan had been in good terms with the Nuova Camorra Organizzata, headed by Raffaele Cutolo until the first half of 1979, but the two clans then broke out into conflict. Cutolo demanded to receive a cut from the Giulianos' illegal gambling centres and lottery system in his power base of Portici. Following this, the Vollaro clan leader named Luigi Vollaro raised the idea of an anti-Cutolo alliance with Giuliano. A provisional death squad was set up, which contributed to the dozens of gangland deaths that year.

The breaking point was reached when the NCO tried to move into the Giulianos' stronghold of Forcella, Piazza Mercato and Via Duomo, in the centre of Naples. A few days before Christmas, 1980, two NCO members presented themselves at an unloading of contraband cigarettes at Santa Lucia and demanded immediate payment of $400,000 to their organization, as well as insisting on future payment of $25 for every crate of cigarettes brought ashore. They then proceeded to shoot and injure one of the Giuliano gang members unloading the cigarettes. On Christmas Eve, Luigi Giuliano himself was wounded in an attack.