A constructing contractor within the Sicilian city of Altofonte found a severed horse head and a cow quartered with its bloodied lifeless calf on his property. The incident is being investigated as a potential mafia risk, CNN reported.
The grisly scene was discovered on the contractor’s land close to Palermo, with the animals stored on an adjoining property. Police have confirmed the invention, describing it as deeply unsettling and just like the 1972 movie The Godfather, during which a personality wakes as much as discover a decapitated horse’s head in his mattress.
The contractor, whose identification is being withheld for security causes, reported to authorities that he had not beforehand acquired any threats. He steadily carries out municipal building work, however has not been approached by any teams demanding cash or favours.
Police are treating the act as a mafia intimidation tactic. The grotesque discovery follows the latest launch of 20 mafia members whose sentences expired, and whose potential for retaliation could also be an element, in line with Maurizio de Lucia, the top of the Anti-Mafia Directorate.
Altofonte’s mayor, Angela De Lucia, known as the incident “barbaric” and stated it “appears to take us again to the Center Ages,” as per CNN.
The usage of lifeless animals as a type of intimidation has an extended historical past in Sicily, the place mafia teams like Cosa Nostra have used such ways for many years. In 2023, related incidents included a severed pig’s head being discovered at a neighborhood police station and a enterprise contractor discovering a goat’s head on his backyard gate.
Sicilian organised crime has deep roots, with Cosa Nostra’s violent historical past reaching its peak in 1992, when two anti-mafia judges had been assassinated. Lately, nonetheless, mafia teams have shifted their focus from violence to infiltrating official companies, akin to building and sanitation. Extortion and safety cash, often known as “pizzo,” proceed to be frequent mafia actions.
