The Duisburg Massacre: When the Mafia Struck in Germany
Six men executed in a parking lot sparked Germany's reckoning with Italian organized crime
Quick Facts
Execution in a Parking Lot
In the early morning hours of August 15, 2007, six men left the Italian restaurant "Da Bruno" in Duisburg-Neudorf. At 01:55, the first shots rang out in the parking lot at Karlstraße 147. It was the beginning of a brutal massacre: two armed gunmen fired at least 70 shots at the group. Sebastiano Strangio (39), Marco Marmo (25), Francesco Giorgi (41), Francesco Pergola (23), Tommaso Venturi (36), and Marco Lucà (32) had no chance to escape. All six were from San Luca—a small town in Calabria considered a stronghold of 'Ndrangheta.
The gunmen disappeared into a dark vehicle. Witnesses described the action as professional and executed with military precision. The victims were targeted deliberately—many were shot in the head. The Duisburg Massacre became the bloodiest mafia murder in German history and confronted the public for the first time with the full brutality of Calabrian organized crime.
A Bloody Family Feud
The massacre was not an isolated incident but the culmination of a decades-long feud between two powerful 'Ndrangheta families from San Luca. The conflict between the Strangio-Nirta and Pelle-Vottari clans had raged since 1991 and had claimed over 20 lives by 2007. The trigger was the murder of Maria Strangio on December 30, 2006, in San Luca—she was shot by members of the Pelle-Vottari clan.
