A shaky peace was established , only to be broken on 14 February when , during the confusion provoked by a strong earth tremor , NCO members in Naples ' Poggioreale prison killed three adversaries . A more serious incident occurred in May , when the NCO bombed houses in Portici owned by men working in the contraband cigarette trade for the Zaza brothers . This was soon followed by retaliatory acts from the rival Nuova Famiglia . The two men who had tried to encroach on the Zaza 's patch were shot and a car bomb was planted outside Cutolo 's family home in Ottaviano . From 1980 to 1983 , a bloody war raged in and around Naples , which left several hundred dead and severely weakened the NCO . It had its root causes in two main events : the rapid growth of two distinct types of Camorra gangs and the profound political and financial instability created by the November 1980 earthquake . The war soon became a straightforward battle for power which was fueled by the billions pouring in from Rome for earthquake reconstruction . For instance , the highest number of deaths occurred in the 1981 – 82 period , when most of the reconstruction contracts were being assigned . The number of gangland murders soon grew to epic proportions . During this period , some Neapolitans would place illegal and macabre bets , in a system controlled by the Camorra itself , on whether there would be more gangland murders than days over the coming year . Between 16 and 19 June 1983 , police arrested a thousand members of the NCO . The earthquake had a major impact on the criminal underworld . A lot of people lost their businesses and were left unemployed and destitute . Without any place to work at , these displaced persons particularly the young men , turned to the NF and NCO for work . During this time , the NCO was getting richer by infiltrating the network of earthquake relief agencies . It hoarded enormous quantities of relief funds and goods , and charged fees for protecting all businesses involved in earthquake re-construction
November 1980 earthquake
1980 Irpinia earthquake
Nuova Camorra Organizzata