The mafia is changing. Not only in Italy, but in the rest of the world as well. It is interesting, but at the same time shuddering, to realize how organized crime is infiltrating our daily lives without us paying attention. It is considered important to talk about such a topic in this moment given the important developments that have taken place in Italy with the arrest of boss Matteo Messina Denaro on 16 January this year.
In order to get an understanding of who Matteo Messina Denaro is and why it is essential to talk about him before addressing the more general topic of this article, that is how the mafia phenomenon is evolving in the world, it should be specified that there are various mafia organizations. In the world, the best-known mafia-like criminal organizations are the Chinese mafia, the Russian mafia, the Albanian mafia, the Nigerian mafia, and the Turkish mafia. In Italy, the mafia is divided by region into different organizations: there is the ‘Ndrangheta in Calabria, the Camorra in Campania, the Sacra Corona Unita in Apulia, the Mafia del Brenta in Veneto, the Stidda and Cosa Nostra in Sicily.
Cosa Nostra is the organization that has always attracted the most media attention in the country because of its criminal action directed against the Italian State. After the arrest of the famous boss Totò Riina in 1993, the leadership of Cosa Nostra passed to Matteo Messina Denaro. With him at the helm, there was a shift from a strategy of massacre to one of sinking criminal activities, and an increasing focus on infiltrating the economy. As a result, a new generation of mafiosi grew up: entrepreneurs eager to get their hands on the legal economy. A famous Italian journalist, Stefano Nazzi, described this transition as “less bullets and more suitcases with money”. This is a mafia that is becoming increasingly silent and mercantilist. The shameless and aggressive action of yesteryear is increasingly shifting towards the need to adopt strategies that make it operate away from law enforcement and the media.
The mafia is changing, which means it is changing its orientation. As specified, this is not only happening in Italy, where all the historical bosses are either dead or imprisoned and, according to a recent report by the DIA, the Italian Anti-Mafia Investigative Directorate, there is a lack of operability of the top structure, so much so that the organization is becoming more and more horizontally structured. Now that the intentions are no longer to plant bombs or kill prominent people, the Italian mafia is looking to the international level to remain strong. The only way is to engage in criminal activities related to the economy.
This change in mafias leads mafia-type criminal groups to compete internationally. There is the Russian mafia, which is involved in drug trafficking, particularly heroin and synthetic drugs, as well as money laundering. The Albanian mafia, on the other hand, controls human trafficking and prostitution, particularly in the UK. They also excel in the distribution of narcotics; particularly cocaine and heroin, but also lighter drugs such as marijuana. The Nigerian mafia, on the other hand, is divided into groups, the main ones being the “Black Axe”, the “Vickings”, the “Supreme Eye Confraternity” and the “Maphite”. This mafia has rigid hierarchical structures and highly structured rules that are mixed with local traditions of the Nigerian peoples. The Nigerian mafia has, over the years, established several contacts with Italian mafias, in particular the aforementioned Cosa Nostra which, in recent years, has been feeling the competition with the Nigerians very strongly. In addition to the well-known Chinese mafia, the Turkish mafia also stands out. The criminal groups belonging to it are very active throughout Western Europe and make their way, in particular, by establishing themselves within the Turkish communities present in major European cities. The Turkish mafia specializes in human trafficking, prostitution, drug trafficking, illegal gambling and extortion.
It is therefore possible to see how mafias around the world are increasingly turning to economic channels to enrich their bosses. The main objective is to infiltrate the legal economy to conduct their criminal activities. Economic sectors long known to be targets of mafia infiltration, such as usury, extortion, and the often mentioned drug trafficking, as common to all organizations. But as well as the Turkish mafia, in addition to these mentioned sectors, mafia-type criminal groups are turning to new sectors, such as gambling and betting. Beyond this type of crime, more damage to the legal economy comes from mafia infiltrations into the business sector. In fact, more and more companies are being set up in tax havens to earn huge sums of money that will most likely end up being laundered. Recent studies also show how the mafia is increasingly infiltrating even the energy sectors and achieving economic success. This is possible because energy products are placed on the market at a lower price than those offered by economic agents without criminal intentions. However, this makes it increasingly difficult to recognize individuals with mafia-like criminal intentions from normal entrepreneurs, which makes the task of defeating international mafias increasingly difficult.
In order to make it clear how the mafia profits from the economic activities it has meddled in, data that refer exclusively to the Italian mafia are proposed. Such data come from the Bank of Italy. In 2021, the Bank of Italy stated that the business of Italian mafia cartels was worth roughly EUR 38 billion a year, well over 100 million a day. Moreover, the revenues of organized crime in Italy are estimated to be worth around 220 billion euro per year, a figure equivalent to 11% of GDP.
This analysis shows how mafias all over the world are increasingly moving towards expanding their presence in the national economy of the main countries where they operate, but also in the international economy. In fact, the mafia economy is constantly expanding and this feeds and sustains the legal economies.
What makes the fight against organized crime even more difficult is its invisibility, but to quote the well-known Italian magistrate, Giovanni Falcone, killed in the 1992 Capaci massacre by Cosa Nostra, “the mafia is by no means invincible, it is a human fact. And, like all human facts, it has a beginning and will also have an end”.
By The European Institute for International Law and International Relations.
