Italy's most infamous housing estate and the setting for the hit TV series Gomorrah is being demolished after residents won their decades-long fight. Long associated with organised crime and destitution, La Vele was once a massive network of blocks in Scampia, in the Neapolitan suburbs. The brutalist structures were for a time western Europe's arms and drugs shopping mall. The sail-shaped towers were built in the 1960s to provide the working class with easy access to Naples, but left them feeling isolated and neglected. A view of one of La Vele's towers (the sail) in Scampia in the suburbs of Naples - at the peak of its deprivation and depravity there was more than a murder-a-day and more syringes in every square kilometre than all of Italy combined The brutal mafia lifestyles of some of the residents inspired the fictional writings of Roberto Saviano on which a movie and TV series are based (pictured: Salvatore Espositon and Marco D'Amore in the first season of the TV series) A view of the iconic towers from a walkway as a local zips along on his scooter with his dog running ahead Most of the families have been moved to newer buildings in the area, with just 300 people remaining in one of the old buildings this week. In 2004, the towers captivated the public during a highly-publicised war which raged over control of the drugs trade between the Di Lauro Camorra clan and the Secessionists. At the peak of its deprivation and depravity there was more than a murder-a-day and more syringes in every square kilometre than all of Italy combined. It inspired the an award-winning film released in 2008, based on the novel Gomorrah written by Roberto Saviano. Designed by Franz Di Salvo and built in 1962, in recent years they deteriorated into a notorious slum Marco D'Amore and Antonio Milo in the first series of the TV show, dining on the rooftop among the brutalist structures The violence of the gangs in La Vele inspired the fictional world which inspired residents to have their area redeveloped And has been spun off into a hit TV show airing on Sky Italia and later Sky Atlantic in the UK since 2014. Indeed, the destruction of La Vele poses a problem for the producers who have been using it as their set. But the parish priest Don Alessandro Gargiulo told La Difesa it was not the world portrayed in the fictions: 'This is a neighbourhood that lives on the honesty of so many people, proud fathers of children, people who work, engage and get together to do things for their institutions. 'The comparison with "Gomorrah" is very difficult to bear: the obvious signs of development and improvement are suffocated by the media with the image which condemns it. A view of the dilapidated buildings, which turned into slums of violence and drug-taking as the decades went by Thought to have been innovative at the time, the new buildings failed to afford the working classes the lifestyles the needed A resident looks out over her balcony as another tower beside remains standing in 2016 The ruinous inner galleries of the estate strewn with detritus and covered in graffiti 'A narrative strand was born about stories and events, which I call an epic of evil.' The blood-stained image of La Vele inspired residents to accelerate the renovation of their area. The success of the Vele Committee is considered an inspirational story of direct democracy in action, of the residents dissenting from the low-quality housing forced onto them by the government. A huge banner has been unfurled over one of the last towers as it was emptied, which declared triumphantly: 'We won the fight, goodbye.' Designed by Franz Di Salvo and built in 1962, they never fulfilled on their promise to provide the modern lifestyles the people had needed. Instead they trapped the locals in Scampia and isolated them from their more affluent neighbours in Naples. The Restart Scampia campaign was launched in 2017 which was given state-funding worth 27 million euros to redevelop the area, Avvenire reported. The first of the seven 'sails' was demolished in 1995 and the total demolition of the estate has been planned for decades. Panoramic view of the Blue Sail building and some of the new buildings assigned to the inhabitants of the sails A resident enters through a door into one of the flats in the Red Sail building in November 2016 The overgrown dirt filled halls of the inside of the estate as seen in November 2016 - millions have been spent in regenerating the area Demolitions and the building over the top of the brown field site is expected to be completed by Christmas Preliminary works are being carried out around the site of the last 'sail,' with external removal and cleaning out of materials before the destruction begins. The top 16th floor of the building will be the first to be knocked out as the workers take out floors from top to bottom. After its removal thee are plans to build two outdoor sports fields over the area, pedestrian lanes, roads, benches, as well as car-parks.All rights reserved for this news site dailymail and under his responsibility