And then finally it comes to a bullet in the head.” “If they prevaricate, they find that their cars have been torched, or a bomb is set off near the mayor's office. “Pressure is put on mayors to grant planning permission,” Corsican Assembly President Dominique Bucchini told FRANCE 24. The city of Ajaccio, capital of Corsica, which has the highest murder rate in France. The subsequent power vacuum has been filled by younger gangs who are in competition with each other and hell-bent on accumulating wealth through drugs trafficking, racketeering and property speculation.Ĭentral to their ambitions is Corsica's unspoiled coastline, much of it protected from development under French law, where land prices are skyrocketing. Police say they have neither a motive for Sollacaro’s killing nor any firm leads – at least officially – for what is the 15th murder this year bearing the hallmarks of a gangland hit.Ĭorsica's criminal underworld has traditionally been linked to nationalist and separatist movements, which have long been a thorn in the French government's side.īut a new breed of criminal gangs has emerged in the last 10 years, after a wave of assassinations eliminated senior figures in the established Corsican Mafia. Sollacaro was known for his long history of defending Corsican nationalists, including the high-profile case of Yvan Colonna, who is currently serving a life sentence for the 1998 murder of the island's prefect. A respected Corsican lawyer murdered this week will be buried on Friday as the Mediterranean island struggles to come to terms with a wave of gang violence that has claimed 15 lives so far this year.Īntoine Sollacaro, Corsica's most experienced and respected barrister, was shot nine times in the head and chest with a high-calibre firearm, in broad daylight, by a gunman riding a motorbike at a petrol station in the island's capital Ajaccio on Tuesday morning.
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