Mafia seen tightening hold on Italy's economy

While businesses and whole economies are losing money across the world, there is one gainer in the global meltdown – the Italian Mafia. These protection rackets and loan sharks, which collect 250 million euroes daily from shopkeepers, are expected to rake in more money as the credit crunch makes the small business more vulnerable.

The mafia groups have a combined turnover of some 130 billion euro (£106 billion) a year – 6 per cent of of the country's GDP - according to Confesercenti, a grouping of small businesses.

Confesercenti on Tuesday said the credit crunch has forced about 180,000 of its members to turn to ruthless mafia money-lenders. It also warned that many of them are frightened into paying the `pizzo' (protection money) to the various regional crime groups in southern Italy.

The Mafia bosses, called `clean chief or CEO' earn around 10,000 to 40,000 euros a month while a drug pusher or `racket enforcer' earns around 1,500 euros, according to a study based on information from Confesercenti's network of members and its own Mafia research arm SOS Impresa.

The going rates for protection money in Sicily and Naples is 10,000 euros a month for building sites, 3,000-5,000 a month for supermarkets and 200-500 for small shops, while market stalls pay a few euros a day, Confesercenti said.

The Confesercenti, a group of 270,000 businesses, said Mafia bosses are now investing in well-known Italian companies as well.

While illegal drugs and smuggling of people still top the mafia's earnings list, the economic gloom has thrown up new business opportunities for the mafia, the group said in a report.

The mafia is using its huge resources to acquire real estate and businesses, the report said.

Italy's four biggest mafias - Calabria's 'Ndrangheta, Sicily's Cosa Nostra, Naples' Camorra and Puglia's Sacra Corona Unita – together have total turnover of about 130 billion euros and profits approaching 70 billion euros, it noted.
 
Mafia has become more dangerous as these have been little affected by the international economic and financial crisis, said Confesercenti's chief Marco Venturi.

He urged banks and the government to provide credit so desperate business owners to get them out of the claws of loan sharks.