Chinese Couple Killed in Rome Amid Escalating Prato-Based Triad Conflict

Rome: A Chinese couple were shot dead in Rome Monday night as a Triads war based in Prato spilled over into the Italian capital, Italian police said.

According to Ansa News Agency, at least six gunshots were fired late Monday evening against the couple in via Prenestina, near the Pigneto district of the Italian capital. The pair were returning home by bike when, a few meters from the building where they lived, the killers approached on a motorcycle and opened fire. The victims were hit in the back of the head.

Prosecutors in the Tuscan city of Prato, which has Italy’s largest Chinese community specializing in textile making, stated that the ongoing war of Chinese organized crime for the monopoly of logistics in the clothing sector is likely the backdrop for the shooting death of the pair, Zhang Dayong, 53, and his wife Gong Xiaoqing, 38. This conflict has been referred to as the ‘war of the hangers’ of Prato over the last two or three years.

The double homicide could well be a revenge killing, the prosecutors suggested, emerging from the same context of Chinese crime in Italy. The escalation indicates that structures consolidated for decades are now being shaken.

The two victims were reportedly linked to the ongoing fight between ‘cartels,’ a battle now being fought openly throughout Europe, with the textile district of Prato as its epicenter. The murdered man, known as Asheng, had been one of the main defendants in the 2018 ‘China Truck’ investigation. This investigation, coordinated by the magistrates of the DDA anti-mafia directorate of Florence, focused on the activities of Chinese trafficking gangs, particularly in logistics related to the clothing industry in Prato.

The investigation uncovered the presence of top figures of the Chinese mafia in the Tuscan city, connected to the mother country and operating throughout Europe. Zhang Dayong was identified as one of the closest collaborators of a central figure in these Tuscan investigations into Chinese criminal feuds, namely the boss Zhang Naizhong. This organization, since 2024, appears to be under attack.

In recent months, Prato has experienced a criminal escalation, with incidents of violence, assaults with attempted murders, and arson attacks on companies not only in Tuscany but also extending to Madrid and Paris.