Dead dogs and dirty tricks
Some of those battling the mob are less than squeaky clean themselves
FOR decades the police have tirelessly attempted to crush organised crime in southern Italy. In 1963 Italy’s parliament acquired a dedicated, all-party anti-Mafia commission. But the fight against Italy’s four big Mafia groups also has a vast unofficial component: of businesspeople publicly refusing to pay for protection, investigative journalists and, above all, civil-society movements. The management of the mobsters’ seized wealth is a huge enterprise: in the 12 months to August 2015, €678m ($793m) was taken from them.
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Dead dogs and dirty tricks”
From the August 6th 2016 edition
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