Beware of Italy’s ‘mafia entrepreneurs’ | Japan time

The economic and social crisis supporting Italy’s hard right ahead of the September 25 election leaves the eurozone’s third-largest economy vulnerable to an even deeper infiltration of organized crime.

In a speech in May, one of his last before the fall of his government, Prime Minister Mario Draghi warned that organized crime had “taken new but equally frightening forms”. Beyond violence – and the threat of violence – “organized crime has infiltrated corporate boardrooms,” he said. “They pollute the economic fabric from the real estate sector to the wholesale supply chains.” In its quest for profit and power, organized crime – from the Cosa Nostra in Sicily, to the Camorra in Naples and the ‘Ndrangheta in Calabria – has extended its southern tentacles deep into Italy’s wealthy industrial north. Overall, Italian criminal groups control around 9% of the economy, according to various estimates.