[Strengthandhonour]

Berlin-Germany and Italy have agreed to form a joint task force to help efforts to fight Italian organized crime, a problem highlighted by last month's slaying of six Italians in Germany, a senior official said in remarks released Saturday. The head of Germany's Federal Crime Office, Joerg Ziercke, said in an interview with the weekly Focus that the task force was aimed at "throwing further light upon the connections of Italian clans to family members in Germany," as well as stepping up the exchange of information.
Authorities in both countries have said the Aug. 15 shootings in Duisburg appeared to be part of a long-running feud between two criminal family clans from Italy's Calabria region, both believed to belong to the 'ndrangheta syndicate.
On Friday, a Duisburg court issued an arrest warrant for a member of one of those families, 28-year-old Giovanni Strangio, on suspicion of murder.
Duisburg police said in a statement that there were "indications an attack was planned by him," without elaborating.
Police said he is a relative of Maria Strangio, the wife of a suspected 'ndrangheta boss, who was killed in Calabria in December. The suspect was arrested at the time of her funeral because he was carrying a gun and was kept in custody in Italy until the middle of this year, they said.
Strangio had been in Germany since Aug. 8, and his apartment in Kaarst, near Duisburg, appeared to have been abandoned hastily when it was searched a week ago, police said. It was unclear whether he was still in Germany.
Ziercke was quoted as telling Focus that he visited Rome and Calabria on Aug. 29 to discuss the situation.
"The Italian authorities do not have concrete indications of further acts of revenge," he said, according to the report. "Independently of that, the German police will take preventive measures."
Ziercke said that German authorities agreed to send officials to Italy to help the investigation there.



source: Germany, Italy to set up joint task force in fight against Mafia crime - International Herald Tribune