A very interesting piece in the LA Times about Nigerian gangsters who’ve begun muscling into the Italian underground, much to the chagrin of the Italian mob - and innocent African immigrants who get mistaken for gangsters and are caught in the crossfire.

The killings in September, recounted in interviews by senior antimafia officials, were gory evidence of conflict between the Neapolitan mafia, known as the Camorra, and Nigerian gangsters who play a growing role in Italy’s drug and prostitution rackets.

Nigerian gangsters have made Castel Volturno a European headquarters. In the 1990s, demand boomed here for African prostitutes — prosecutors call it “the Naomi Campbell phenomenon.” Camorra clans “rented” turf to Nigerian pimps, a line of work that Neapolitan gangsters disdain.

“The Camorra worked well with the Nigerians at first,” said Antonio Laudati, a top Justice Ministry official who led a major prosecution of the Nigerian mafia last year. “They were low-cost labor. They were well-received because they were cheap and very loyal. But then the Nigerians started to rise to a new level.”