Gunmen shot dead a high-profile criminal lawyer in Italy's Calabria region as he was driving home late on Tuesday.
Police found Francesco Pagliuso's bullet-ridden body slumped at the wheel of his car at 3 am near his villa outside the town of Lamezia Terme.
The 43-year-old lawyer had defended prominent Calabrian mafia or 'Ndrangheta suspects in several trials and his clients also included well-known businessmen, senior officials and politicians.
Pagliuso owned a popular local nightspot and allegedly carried a loaded Magnum pistol with him at all times.
Another lawyer, Torquato Ciriaco, was shot dead in Lamezia Terme in 2002 in a case over which no one has yet been brought to trial.
Informants told local anti-mafia prosecutors in 2014 that the 'Ndrangheta ordered Ciriaco's murder to stop him buying a building company it wanted to control.
Drug trafficking, extortion and money-laundering rackets have in recent decades made the 'Ndrangheta Italy's wealthiest and most powerful international crime syndicate.
It has links to powerful South American drug cartels and operates in northern and southern Italy as well as in northern Europe, Canada and Australia.
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