Police are investigating the deadly taking pictures of a 71-year-old former mafia boss on a motorway close to Grenoble in south-eastern France.
Jean-Pierre Maldera, described by French media as a “godfather” of the native mafia within the Eighties, was reportedly chased in his automobile and shot as he travelled up the A41 motorway on Wednesday morning.
The shooters fled the scene and the burnt-out stays of the stolen Renault Megane automobile they had been driving was present in a Grenoble parking zone shortly after.
His demise comes ten years after the disappearance of his youthful brother, Robert Maldera, one other mafia boss reportedly nicknamed “the madman” by members of Grenoble’s felony underworld.
Regional newspaper Le Dauphiné Libéré reported Maldera left the BMW he was driving and tried to flee on foot throughout the motorway.
He was chased and killed by the assailants within the assault involving three or 4 gunmen, native media stated.
They’re reported to have used a military-grade weapon, reminiscent of a Kalashnikov rifle, to hold out the killing.
Maldera is reported to have been a key determine within the so-called “Italo-Grenoblois” mafia group in the course of the Eighties and Nineteen Nineties, alongside along with his brother Robert.
In 2004, the pair had been discovered responsible of a collection of offences linked to organised crime, although they had been launched the next 12 months attributable to an administrative error, in response to the French media.
Nevertheless, this was not the primary time Maldera had been convicted. He had a rap sheet stretching again to the Nineteen Seventies, in response to French regional media outlet France 3.
However Maldera appeared to go for a quieter life after his launch from jail within the early 2000s, with AFP information company reporting the authorities didn’t hear of him once more till his taking pictures this week.
It isn’t clear if Maldera was nonetheless concerned in felony exercise on the time of his demise.
His brother Robert disappeared in 2015 on the age of 55.
He went lacking after attending a gathering on the outskirts of Grenoble. His automobile was found two months later in a parking zone close by.
A supply who had investigated the Maldera brothers informed France 3 that Jean-Pierre had been the mind behind their schemes, whereas Robert had been the brawn.