Italian mafia link to Lorca double shooting murders

Guardia Civil sources identify one victim as notorious suspected gangster out on bail

Archive photo of forensics officers examining a car

The identity of one of two men who were shot dead in Lorca on Tuesday has opened a new line of investigation that could link this double murder to the Italian mafia.

The first was found at 1.50pm in a house in El Cantal, an isolated, mountainous area near the coast, and the second was discovered two hours later several kilometres away, in the boot of a white Peugeot parked outside a bar in the village of Ramonete.

According to sources close to the investigation, the man who was gunned down at his home in El Cantal was Giuliano Velo, a suspected Italian mafioso aged 67, who has been well known to the Spanish security forces since he moved to Spain three decades ago.

He had bullet wounds in one leg and in the abdomen.

Velo was currently out on bail after spending a year in prison accused of leading a network that supplied large boats to transport hashish.

Born in the town of Cittadella in northern Italy, organised crime specialists have consistently linked him to the ‘Mala del Brenta’ mafia group, founded in the Veneto region in the 1970s and also known as the ‘Venetian Mafia’ or ‘Mafia del Piovese’.

As the alleged leader or capo of one arm of that criminal organisation, Velo settled on the Spanish Mediterranean coast.

Two decades ago, he was investigated in Málaga for his suspected involvement in a murder, although he was cleared due to lack of evidence.

A few years later, having moved to the Guadalentín area, he was arrested in connection with a haul of 2,600 kilos of marijuana plants – one of the largest seizures ever made in the region – and was sentenced to eight years in prison.

He served around six years, having used his first prison leave to flee the country. His escape coincided with the murder in Águilas of another Italian, Giuseppe Nirta, casting suspicion on Velo’s possible involvement in that crime.

However, he was eventually arrested in Albania, extradited to Spain, and acquitted of the Italian’s murder.

Guardia Civil were reportedly tipped off by a neighbour about the body in the boot of the car, which had bulletholes and blood stains on the bodywork.

The man was found tied up and gagged, and had signs of gunshot wounds, but neither his identity nor his nationality have yet been confirmed.

“An investigation is underway into the possible link between the two events. The proceedings have been declared confidential,” said the Guardia Civil.

Image: Archive