Mafia, "richer than any Italian bank"

The economic crisis in Italy is in favour of the mafia, in the context in which there is an explosion of information on suspicious financial transactions.

Only during 2010-2011, an increase of 14 per cent in the reports about suspected activities of money laundering through financial institutions, according to officials of the Bank of Italy.

The comparison was made with the previous two years.

About 800 of the total reports have involved persons arrested or under investigation for Mafia activities, said Anna Maria Tarantola, Deputy director of the Central Bank, in a hearing in the Parliament in Rome.

A quarter of these were recorded only in Northern Italy, in addition to traditional mafia controlled territories, was also found Anna Maria Tarantola.

Money laundering is also accentuated by the economic crisis that currently passing Italy.

The amount generated in 2011 by organised crime was 140 billion euros, which is about 7 per cent of the gross domestic product, according to a report by the Group's anti-mafia SOS Impresa.

The same group estimated that the mafia has 65 million euros in cash, becoming the first bank in the country.

Organized crime groups such as the Cosa Nostra in Sicily, Camorra in Campania region and Ndrangheta in Calabria , have always stifled the Italian economy.

But their control was strengthened during the current economic crisis, in the context in which the banks have reduced credit and the criminal networks, generous with money, and have boosted their investments in the real economy.

About raids against mafia groups in Italy it is spoken daily.

Only on Wednesday, police in Naples arrested 47 persons for various mafia crimes, including extortion money.

Translated by Denisse-Meda Bucura
MTTLC, Bucharest University