In an operation code-named “Easy Money,” police this year seized a hotel in the exclusive Tuscan sea resort of Punta Ala, as well as a supermarket, two Ferraris, a gas station in the wealthy northern Reggio Emilia region and other properties, altogether totaling about US$40 million (RM144 million). All were believed to be owned by the Camorra, flush with drug profits.
The revenues raked in by Italy’s crime syndicates would be more than respectable for many a stock market-listed company these days — although, of course, the mobsters hardly issue annual reports.
The Rome-based Eurispes think tank has estimated that in 2008, “Mafia Inc” earned €130 billion (then RM601 billion), or about 8 per cent of Italy’s GDP, from its criminal activities, nearly half of that from drug trafficking.
Eurispes, which analyzes social, economic and criminal trends, said loansharking brought in an estimated $17 billion (RM61 billion) of that income. It calculated that some 180,000 merchants and other businessmen got their loans, directly or indirectly, through organised crime in Italy.
With much of the world financial crunch making its impact in Italy in the first months of this year, it’s too early to tell how much more profit organised crime might make.
They are in more than just the US. They extort anything they can. I mean man. Those are some big numbers. Extortion is the market today for the mafia I guess.
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