Italy’s Meloni visits Naples suburb where 2 girls were allegedly raped by youths, pledges crackdown

By FRANCES D’EMILIO
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Under heavy security, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni has visited a rundown Naples suburb where drug traffickers operate largely with impunity and two girls were allegedly repeatedly raped by local youths.  Meloni spent a few hours at the invitation of a local priest in the Green Park neighborhood of Caivano. She promised that an abandoned sports complex, the suspected site of some the alleged rapes of two cousins, would be repaired and re-opened in the spring. The Camorra crime syndicate holds significant influence in Naples and its suburbs. The trip was a chance for Meloni to show that her nearly year-old right-wing government is tough on crime and attentive to people living in largely neglected areas of the country.