Mafia wants Gomorrah author Roberto Saviano dead by Christmas

Italy's notorious Camorra mafia plans to assassinate an investigative journalist who wrote a best-selling book about the criminal organisation's murderous activities, police have been told.

The Naples-based mafia has allegedly ordered a hit on Roberto Saviano and his 24-hour police protection squad "by Christmas", according to the testimony of a former mafia member turned police collaborator.

The Camorra group, the lesser known cousin of the Sicilian mafia, was furious when Mr Saviano, 29, lifted the lid on its crime empire in his 2006 book Gomorrah – a word play on the group's name and the Biblical city of sin.

Mr Saviano's decision to name names and denounce suspected underworld gangsters earned him the admiration of many Italians but threats of retribution from mafia bosses.

His book, which has sold more than a million copies in Italy, has been made into a film, which is currently showing in Britain.

Camorra godfathers have threatened to kill Mr Saviano in the past, but this is the first time they have issued a deadline.

The plot to murder the young author has moved into the "operational phase", police have been told by the informer, Carmine Schiavone, a former member of the ruthless Casalesi clan, which Mr Saviano exposed in his book.

"The plan is to have Saviano and his body guard taken out by Christmas with a bomb attack on the motorway between Rome and Naples," Mr Schiavone told anti-mafia investigators in Naples.

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