For years guidebooks to Europe have warned travelers to Naples to keep a firm hand on their luggage and an eye peeled for pickpockets. In the openly larcenous days of World War II, a pack of local thieves once made off with a whole shipload of sugar—ship & all. Last spring when Achille Lauro, Naples' wealthiest shipowner, took office as mayor, he promised to clean up the permanent Neapolitan crime wave. "We must operate like surgeons," he told his police force, who promptly went to work rounding up hundreds of pickpockets. Plainclothesmen roamed the streets in squads of three...
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