Mafia-style violence is on the rise in the same Italian region where G7 leaders are set to meet

The G7 leaders’ summit will take place in the southern Italian region of Puglia, where mafia-style criminal groups are alleged to be behind an uptick of violence.

Around the same time Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced that the G7 leaders’ meeting would be held in the southern Italian region of Puglia as part of her country’s presidency of the economic organization, local anti-mafia investigators were homing in on three mafia-style criminal groups alleged to be behind an uptick of violence there. The groups were showing worrying signs of trouble, according to the Italian Interior Ministry’s half-yearly report released in January 2024. The prevalence of criminality recorded “reflects the dynamism of criminal balances and structures marked not only by conflicts between opposing clans but also by inter-clan friction,” the report said. The groups are offshoots of the Sacra Corona criminal syndicate, centered around the city of Foggia and made up of crime families who group together in clans. Unlike the better-known Cosa Nostra in Sicily, the Camorra in Naples and the ‘Ndrangheta in Calabria, which have a large international footprint, the Puglia groups work largely within Italy and the Balkans, according to DIGOS (Divisione Investigazioni Generali e Operazioni Speciali), Italy’s top anti-terrorism and anti-mafia unit. Based in and around the coastal cities of Bari and Brindisi – essentially exactly where world’s most powerful leaders will be meeting between June 13 and 15 – the groups had been knocking off foes in brazen daylight attacks and carrying out armed car-jackings at an alarming rate.