Duisburg Massacre 2007

The Massacre on Ferdinandstraße

On August 15, 2007, around 10 p.m., Italian mafia members were picked up from the restaurant Ristorante da Bruno on Ferdinandstraße in Duisburg. Six men were taken to a neighboring property behind an Italian ice cream parlor. There they were shot down with military precision — some struck by numerous bullets, others executed with shots to the head. It was the year's most brutal European mafia attack.

The victims were:

- Girolamo Gullace (39) - Domenico Stillitano (26) - Rocco Saraca (29) - Oreste Spizzirri (37) - Giovanni Strangio (21) - Salvatore Castagnino (26)

All were members of or associated with the Ndrangheta organization from Calabria in Italy. Most came from the town of San Luca — an area known as the Ndrangheta's stronghold and previously marked by internal mafia feuds.

Background: The Feud in San Luca

The Duisburg massacre was not an isolated event, but the culmination of a conflict that had been growing over several years between two Ndrangheta clans in San Luca: the Strangio-Nirta clan and the Pelle-Vottari clan. The feud had roots dating back to the 1980s, but escalated dramatically in the mid-2000s.

Italian mafia operators had gradually established themselves in Germany, where they conducted drug trafficking and other illegal enterprises. The Duisburg area became a central hub for their European operations. Gang members could move freely across borders without facing the same scrutiny they would encounter in Italy.

The original conflict between the clans had started over territory, trade control, and slights — classic mafia reasons. But the conflict had become more personal and brutal. One of the murdered men, Giovanni Strangio, was the son of boss Giovanni "Il Giallo" Strangio.