The Italian government on Friday dissolved four town councils in southern Italy for mafia infiltration and cancelled upcoming local polls due in three of them.
The cabinet named the councils as Laureana di Borrello, Bova Marina, and Gioia Tauro in the Calabria region and San Felice a Cancello in the Campania region surrounding Naples.
All four councils will be run by special commissions, the cabinet said.
Interior minister Marco Minniti requested the councils be disbanded due to "the proven conditioning of their administrative activities by organised crime," the interior ministry said in a statement.
Laureana di Borrello, Bova Marina, and Gioia Taura had been slated to hold local elections on 11 June.
Dozens of other town councils in southern Italy have been disbanded for mafia infiltration including the Sicilian mafia stronghold of Corleone, which was dissolved last year.
The first northern town to meet a similar fate was Brescello, in the Emilia-Romagna region, which was also disbanded in 2016 for infiltration by the Calabrian mafia or 'Ndrangheta.
A town councillor from Laureana di Borrello was arrested last November in an operation that led to the arrests of 41 mafia suspects in several regions across Italy.
