Italian police arrest alleged mobster

NAPLES, Italy, Dec. 22 (UPI) -- Police in Naples, Italy, Monday arrested reputed Mafia member Mose Esposito and said they were closing in on his boss, Giuseppe Setola.

Esposito, 29, was arrested at a small villa near Casal di Principe, the base of an alleged murder squad run by the Camorra clan, reported ANSA, the Italian news agency.

Esposito's step-brother, now in prison, is suspected in the September slaying of six West Africa immigrants in the town of Castel Volturno, ANSA said Monday.

The slayings allegedly were organized by Setola, whose murder squad has killed an estimated 20 people since May, police allege.

"We are working to flush him out. The circle is closing around him," said Franco Roberti, who heads an anti-Mafia program in Naples.

Setola inadvertently was released from prison last Spring on house arrest but immediately went underground and reformed his alleged murder squad, Roberti said.