Jealous 15-year-old boy 'gunned down best friend' for liking his girlfriend Facebook photo

The killer, Alex Pititto.

15-year-old teenage mobster Alex Pititto, the son of 'Ndrangheta mafia boss Salvatore Pititto, known as 'El Tio', or the Uncle is now facing life in jail for killing his best friend with a gun for simply liking a Facebook picture of his girlfriend.

The Victim has been identified as 19-year-old Francesco Prestia, he was left dead in an olive field in Mileto, Italy, with three bullets in his chest.

The victim, Francesco Prestia Lambert

A local media reported that Pititto, who had long suspected his friend had feelings for his girlfriend, saw the Facebook 'like' as a "lack of respect."

When he saw that Francesco had ticked the 'like' button for a new picture on her Facebook profile he called his friend to a meeting in a remote field and gunned him down and later turned himself into police and led them to the olive grove where he had left his friend's body.

He had recently posted a picture of him and his friend online, captioned: "Friendship is something in the mouth of everybody, but in the heart of not too many people."

Pititto's family is one of the lynchpins of Italian organised crime.

His father, Salvatore, 49, his mother, Maria Antonia Messiano, his brother and his cousin were arrested in January in a police anti mafia operation called Stammer.

Italian mafia experts say that a new, young, and deadly generation of teenage 'baby bosses' are making organised crime even more lethal

Mafia author Roberto Saviano said the new generation have no fear of being caught and are quicker to kill than the old crime clans.

Victim Francesco's family left a message on his Facebook page saying: "You were so perfect that angels wanted you with them. We miss you a lot. Travel well, prince."