The Italians call them 'baby killers' - not because they kill babies, but because they are trained to kill while they are still legally minors, and therefore cannot be punished as adults.

Police at the scene of a Mafia shooting

Seventeen year old Vincenzo Trubia from Gela - a Mafia-dominated town in the Southeast corner of Sicily - has admitted to Police that he is a trained Mafia hitman. He has been carrying a gun since his uncle gave him one for his eleventh birthday, he told prosecutors.

Vincenzo is now under police protection somewhere in Italy, one of more than 4,000 former Mafia criminals who are taking part in a huge government-run witness protection programme.

Mafia school

Giovanni Tinebra, chief prosecutor at Caltanisetta in central Sicily, raised the alarm when he gave details of the 'school' near Gela for teenage killers.

Pupils at the 'school', he said, are taught to shoot, strip down pistols, and become expert moped and scooter riders to enable them to take part in hit and run attacks on designated individuals.

"At 11 or 12 they are taken into the countryside to learn to shoot. They are given a mission to kill - which they are unfortunately able to carry out with great skill. The 'school' run by the Mafia is an alternative to ordinary compulsory schooling for many Sicilian children."

Turncoat

Vincenzo became one of Italy's youngest official turncoats during police investigations into a series of Mafia murders in Gela last July. Four people were shot dead - the latest in a series of family vendetta killings that have been going on for years. Vincenzo was employed as a lookout, he did not actually take part in these killings, but he was part of the scene and got scared.

The use of child killers by the mafia is not new. What has shocked Italian public opinion is the extent of the phenomenon, and the brazen attitudes of Mafia bosses towards the exploitation of children as accomplices to adults in crime, as confirmed by law enforcement officers.

Caterina Chinnici is in charge of the office for the prosecution of minors in Caltanisetta. "If someone kills his father in Verona or a wealthy jeweller in Milan (in Northern Italy) the Italian State mobilises," she says. "If the baby-killers shoot in Gela, as they have been doing for 10 years now, nothing happens."

"There are only three specialist social workers dealing with child criminals in Gela, they are competent and scrupulous, but too thin on the ground," she added.

Too late

Another law official, Patrizia Martucci said it was almost useless to try to rehabilitate young people once they had fallen into the clutches of the Mafia. "We have an experimental probation system which appears to work for children who travel on the buses without tickets, or who damage public property, but we feel that its too late for young adults like Vincenzo" she said.

In the last six months 98 people were arrested and charged with mafia related crimes

Vincenzo's father Nunzio owns a flock of 400 sheep from whose milk he makes cheese, the main source of family income. "I've always tried to keep my boys away from their uncles in the Mafia," he said.

But Vincenzo said he decided to help his uncles Pietro and Emanuele despite his father's warning. "They asked me to spy on members of a rival Mafia family and I felt I couldn't say no", he explained.

Three of the seven Trubia sons are now enrolled in the Italian government's witness protection programme.

Extortion

The authorities claim some successes in their battle against Mafia crime. In the past six months 98 people were arrested and charged with Mafia related crimes in the Gela area. But the extortion of regular protection payments by all businesses in Gela, small and large, is so deeply rooted that practically no shop keeper dares to say no.