ROME (AFP)
A prominent Neapolitan crooner known as "The King" who accused
mafia traitors of "bringing down the empire" in his songs was
arrested for drug trafficking on Wednesday, the police told AFP.
"I've never seen this many cameras, even at my concerts!" Tony
Marciano quipped as he was dragged away by police from his home
near Naples.
The slick 46-year-old was one of 22 people arrested in a
crackdown against the Gionta clan of the powerful Naples mafia,
the Camorra.
"Tony Marciano is suspected of financing drug trafficking over
the past three years," a spokesman for the Carabinieri police
said.
He is suspected of trafficking in marijuana and powerful
hallucinogenics.
Born Ciro Marciano, the singer began his career in the 1980s.
In 1986, he sold 150,000 copies of his album "Io Sono
Meridionale" ("I Am From the South"), the Corriere del
Mezzogiorno daily reported.
He also sang the duet "Me and You" with famous Neapolitan actress
Maria Nazionale, who played a mafia boss's wife in the
award-winning film "Gomorra".
In one of Marciano's latest numbers "Nun Ciamm Arrennere" ("We
Won't Give Up" in Neapolitan dialect), he attacked mafia
turncoats.
"They've lost the code of silence," he crooned and even admitted
in the song that he had been on the run from police for more than
a year.
