A constructing contractor within the Sicilian city of Altofonte found a severed horse head and a cow quartered with its bloodied lifeless calf on his property. The incident is being investigated as a attainable mafia menace, CNN reported.
The grisly scene was discovered on the contractor’s land close to Palermo, with the animals stored on an adjoining property. Police have confirmed the invention, describing it as deeply unsettling and much like the 1972 movie The Godfather, through which a personality wakes as much as discover a decapitated horse’s head in his mattress.
The contractor, whose identification is being withheld for security causes, reported to authorities that he had not beforehand obtained any threats. He often carries out municipal development work, however has not been approached by any teams demanding cash or favours.
Police are treating the act as a mafia intimidation tactic. The ugly discovery follows the current launch of 20 mafia members whose sentences expired, and whose potential for retaliation could also be an element, based on Maurizio de Lucia, the top of the Anti-Mafia Directorate.
Altofonte’s mayor, Angela De Lucia, known as the incident “barbaric” and stated it “appears to take us again to the Center Ages,” as per CNN.
The usage of lifeless animals as a type of intimidation has a protracted historical past in Sicily, the place mafia teams like Cosa Nostra have used such ways for many years. In 2023, related incidents included a severed pig’s head being discovered at a neighborhood police station and a enterprise contractor discovering a goat’s head on his backyard gate.
Sicilian organised crime has deep roots, with Cosa Nostra’s violent historical past reaching its peak in 1992, when two anti-mafia judges have been assassinated. Lately, nevertheless, mafia teams have shifted their focus from violence to infiltrating reliable companies, similar to development and sanitation. Extortion and safety cash, often called “pizzo,” proceed to be widespread mafia actions.