Italian mafia leader gets life for massacre

The ringleader of a gangland massacre of six people in Germany was sentenced to life in prison yesterday for an attack that highlighted the international reach of Italy's Calabrian mafia.

Giovanni Strangio, 32, was one of eight people convicted and given Italy's stiffest sentence for their roles in a violent feud that culminated in the 2007 slayings in the German city of Duisburg.

Three other people were convicted and sentenced to terms ranging from nine to 12 years, while three more were acquitted, a court in the southern Italian city of Locri said.

Six Italian men were gunned down as they left a birthday party at an Italian restaurant in Duisburg. Prosecutors said the massacre was part of a long-running feud between two clans of the 'ndrangheta organised crime syndicate, based in the southern Italian region of Calabria.

The 'ndrangheta is today considered more powerful than the Sicilian mafia and is one of the world's main cocaine traffickers.