A new generation of mafia gangsters battling over drug turfs on the mean streets of Naples are styling themselves on the Islamist extremists of Isil and the Taliban, Italian prosecutors have revealed.

Mobsters belonging to the Camorra mafia are growing long beards and embracing a “cult of death” similar to that adopted by the terrorists of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. One clan, in the Sanita district of Naples, has taken to calling itself the “Barbuti” - the bearded ones.

The new generation, which is challenging the supremacy of older, more established Camorra families, flirts with death in order to give meaning to their lives, said Nicola Quatrano, a judge who recently condemned 43 mafia criminals to prison for a variety of serious crimes.

It is also a way of striking fear into their enemies, by presenting themselves as being as unscrupulous and murderous as Isil fighters.