GRENOBLE, France: A former local mafia boss died on Wednesday after he was shot in his car in the middle of a busy highway near the French city of Grenoble, local authorities and sources close to the case said.

Jean-Pierre Maldera, 71, died of his wounds after the shootout on Wednesday morning, the civil defence and the regional prosecutor´s office said.

Maldera was one of the so-called “godfathers” of the Franco-Italian mafia that terrorised the southeastern city in the 1980s, along with his brother Robert, according to a source close to the case.

Robert Maldera, nicknamed “Il pazzo” (“The madman” in Italian), had gone missing aged 55 in 2015, the source added.