Police are investigating the shooting death of 71-year-old former mafia boss Jean-Pierre Maldera, who was fatally shot on a motorway near Grenoble in southeastern France.
Reports indicate that Maldera, known as a “godfather” of the local mafia during the 1980s, was chased in his car and shot while traveling on the A41 motorway on Wednesday morning. The assailants fled the scene, and a stolen Renault Megane believed to be used in the attack was later discovered burned in a Grenoble parking lot.
Maldera’s death is particularly notable given the disappearance of his younger brother, Robert Maldera, a fellow mafia boss nicknamed “the madman,” who went missing a decade ago. Local media reported that Jean-Pierre attempted to escape on foot after leaving his BMW, but was pursued and killed by three or four gunmen, who allegedly used military-grade weapons in the attack, such as a Kalashnikov rifle.
Jean-Pierre Maldera was a prominent figure in the “Italo-Grenoblois” mafia group during the 1980s and 1990s. In 2004, he and his brother were convicted for various organized crime-related offenses, though they were released the following year due to an administrative error. Maldera had a criminal history dating back to the 1970s but seemed to lead a quieter life after his early 2000s release, with authorities reporting little activity from him until his recent shooting.
As for Robert, he vanished in 2015 after attending a meeting near Grenoble, with his vehicle found two months later in a nearby parking lot. A source familiar with the Maldera brothers’ operations noted that while Jean-Pierre was the strategist behind their schemes, Robert was the one who executed them.
Credit: BBC News
