ROME – Two murals dedicated to clan members have been removed in the Tor Bella Monaca neighbourhood during the early hours of the morning, police officials confirm.

 The operation, which began a 1 a.m., saw dozens of local police and carabinieri employed in the suburbs of Rome.

 One of the murals was located in Via Ferdinando Quaglia, and depicted the face of Serafino Cordaro, a clan member who was killed in 2013 by Stefano Crescenzi in a ruthless struggle to control the drug market. In his design, the artist renamed Cordaro “the angel”.

 The other mural was a couple of kilometres away and measured 100 metres in total. It was in memory of Antonio Moccia, who died in a traffic accident in 2012. He was the son of Vincenzo Moccia, the boss of the Afragola clan.

 Both families are considered untouchable by those who live in the area.

 The agents, led by Antonio di Maggio, feared a reaction from those wanting to protect the clan members from the presence of “foreign forces” in the neighbourhood. Police were therefore made to wear bulletproof vests and blocked the roads with large municipal trucks while they removed the artwork.

 A woman was allegedly heart shouting “Go away” from her window, while distant cries of “bastards” were also reported.

 At the start of May, Rome’s mayor, Virginia Raggi, promised to have both the murals removed. 

 After successfully completing the operation, she said: “We promised it and we did it. These murals had been here for years, but no one had ever dared to remove them.”

 She concluded, saying: “We’ll come back to Tor Bella Monaca. We will work to restore the presence of the State in a territory that has been abandoned for too long.”

 fct