MAFIA, THE ROTTEN OF ITALY…

Originally posted by Lorenzo Petrilli, the author of  “ON THE CREST OF THE WAVE” blog

Nowadays, Italian mafia has an economic capital that turns pale the GDP of most countries; its turnover of 130 bln of euro represents the 6% of the Italian GDP. Nevertheless you must be careful with the numbers.

The reference is to the Saviano Roberto’s words

(always and in any case he remain the writer that more than all, uses his words and his investigations against mafia) in accordance with him:

”only with cocaine, mafia have a yearly turnover 60 times Fiat and 100 times Benetton”.

Well, when we speak about numbers and about facts, we have to know them and we have to know how to analyze them; this, was done by Luca Ricolfi and his result is this:” from several years Roberto Saviano tells to his interviewers :”cocaine business is certainly, the more profitable italian business, only with coca mafia have a yearly turnover 60 times Fiat”. Unfortunately Fiat yearly turnover is about 50 billion of euro, and 50 X 60 = 3.000.000.000.000 of euro, this is a number that is more big than the italian GDP (1.500 bln) and that exceed the complete national debt. Nevertheless, once again, no interviewer, no reader or no proofreader has perceived the absurdity, and let alone they have tried to compare the number that was denounced by Saviano, 3.000 bln, with the most influential valuations on cocaine traffic, all less than 30 bln”.

One of the main issues that weaken the Italian society is the organized crime that spread to the whole country in the last years. Italy is threatened by four autochthonous criminals formations: Cosa Nostra from Sicily, the ‘Ndrangheta from Calabria, Camorra from Campania and the Mafia pugliese. In Italy it is denominated as ‘quarta mafia’. Indeed, in accordance with the annual report of the DNA (Direzione Nazionale Antimafia) “isn’t an unitary association but a whole of different criminal groups, it acts with mafia methods and pursues mafia purposes”.

The ‘Mafia pugliese’ like the ‘Sacra Corona Unita’ has recently left the role of consultant on how to introduce illicit products in Puglia and it’s starting to commit mafia’s activities as usury, drug, extortion, migrants, prostitution, contraband, robberies and it has improved operative capacities in white collar crime.

In the last years the organized crime is moving from native area to northern Italy. In particular, representatives of the ‘Ndrangheta have colonized the scene of politic, economic, establishment of regions such as Piemonte, Liguria, Lazio, Umbria, Emilia Romagna and Abruzzo where they show a serious interest in the contracts for the reconstructions of infrastructure after the earthquake in 2009, April 6.

A lot of ‘’Ndrangheta’s’ groups maintain their status independent from Calabrian base with which they keep close relations and from which all the strategic choices depend. Nowadays ‘Ndrangheta has a dominant position in Italian mafia scene and makes the foreign mafia almost meaningless.

The infiltrations in the public administration are more worrying. In accordance with the annual report of DNA, ” ‘Ndrangheta has characteristics of a mafia organization that it is present in all Italian territory, globalized and extremely powerful on military and economic level enough to be defined structural institutional presence in Calabrian society, unfailing interlocutor with each administrative and politic power, necessary partner of each national and multinational firm that has obtained the adjudication of public works on the regional territory”.

If ‘Ndrangheta is getting stronger from all point of views, Cosa Nostra decreases its power. Nevertheless it has able to survive thanks to its structure which allows to maintains stable its economic, social and politic activities, continuing to use the extortion system, the illicit award to the public contracts, in the fruits and vegetables markets and in the sector of games rooms.

The criminal organization of the same level as ‘Ndrangheta’ is the Camorra, which is dislocated in various combinations in the whole country, in various groups, it is able to form more or less complex criminals strategies.

Nowadays the Mafia is seeping into the contracts for waste disposal plants that, in fact, are disposed illegally. An example, the disposal of toxic wastes that are transported from the north in the farmland in the south in Campania, Calabria, Abruzzo. Today ‘Mafia’ is controlling 1/3 of the Italian territory and the “Mafia spa” is the first Italian company with a turnover of 130 billion per year.

The mafia organizations are like a multinational that works in the global economy. On May 30th, 2008 George Bush quoted ‘Ndrangheta in the black list of the “rabble” organizations instituted with the kingpin Act in 1999. A research conducted by Senator John Kerry in collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh (which become a report to the Congress of the United States and also a book though ignored in Italy) examines the relation between mafia and economy and mafia-democracy of mafias most powerful in the world (Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Italian, South American) and conclude confirming that these representing the third largest economy in the world able to twist the rules of the market and strongly affect the legal economy and democracy.

According to Kerry the Italian mafia (‘Ndrangheta, Camorra, Cosa Nostra, Sacra Corona Unita) “for its protection it pours one’s energies into politicians, the members of the mafia buy a large number of officers and they corrupt politicians in other countries. Besides, mafia is observed with respect from other mafias because it has given them the mafia’s know how”.

The fundamental characteristic of the Italian organized crime is that it is exported. For example, the police operation denominated “Crimine 2” ,on March 8, 2010, where 41 people were arrested, has confirmed a criminal model that has been exported at first in northern Italy Milan in particular and then, in Germany, Australia, Switzerland and Canada.

Photo by una-di-tante.livejournal.com