Amsterdam - The chief suspect in a Mafia hit one and a half years ago at a German pizzeria has been arrested in the Netherlands, police said Friday.

Giovanni Strangio, 30, was taken into custody late Thursday in Amsterdam, said police in Duisburg, the western German city where the six murders took place in August 2007.

Strangio's brother-in-law, who was also accused in the murders of members of a rival clan in the southern Italian criminal organization 'Ndrangheta, was arrested in November, also in Amsterdam.

Giuseppe Nirta, one of the senior leaders of 'Ndrangheta, had also been sought by Italy for more than 10 years to serve a sentence of nearly 15 years for drug trafficking.

The shootings occurred during a years-long bloody battle for power between the Nirta-Strangio and Pelle-Vottari clans that had already cost several lives in their home base of Calabria.

The two gunmen were able to flee to Gent, Belgium, where they abandoned a rented car and disappeared.

Witnesses said they saw two attackers fire about 70 bullets at the six victims, aged 16 to 39, as they were sitting in cars after leaving the Da Bruno restaurant in the industrial city.

One of the Duisburg victims was a chief suspect in the December 2006 murder in San Luca, Calabria, of Maria Strangio, the wife of the suspected leader of the Strangio-Nirta clan and cousin of Giovanni Strangio.

The hit was believed to have been revenge for the Christmastime killing of Maria Strangio and the wounding of her son.

Giovanni Strangio ran two pizzerias in Kaarst, Germany, 30 kilometres south of Duisburg, and was believed to be active in the Nirta-Strangio clan. (dpa)