MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mafia, Italy's largest and most profitable “corporation”

The largest business in Italy today is organized crime, Mafia, with an annual turnover of some 130 billion euros (about 165.71 billion US dollars) and a net profit of close to 70 billion euros, after investments and expenses, according to the Italian national retail services association Confesercenti on Tuesday.

Confesercenti which has 270.000 members said in a report "everyday organized crime takes some 250 million euros from the hands of retailers and businessmen. This is equal to about 10 million euros an hour or 160,000 euros a minute". Loan sharking is the greatest source of income for organized crime from the business sector and it continues to expand, the report said. "The number of businessmen who have fallen victim to this crime has risen to some 180,000, and offering loans at high interest rates has created a turnover close to 15 billion euros for organized crime," the retailers' association added. Extortion is the second biggest money-maker for organized crime although "the number of businesses forced to pay protection money has remained stable due to a general decline in the number of legal enterprises and a rise in those controlled by mafia organizations," the report said. But organized crime is not interested in protection money alone, the retailers' report observed, and many gangs have infiltrated important segments of the legal economy and expanded into areas like tourism, bars and restaurants, food production and entertainment, according to Italian News Agency ANSA. According to the report, the mafia is heavily involved in housing construction, which accounts for 37.5% of its profits, as well as retailing and restaurants. The association's president Marco Venturi warned the mafia could use the current weakness in other businesses and the uncertainty in the economy to boost its position. The mafia's "huge financial resources allow it to carve out new chunks of the market, to profit from the lack of liquidity, to acquire real estate and businesses," the report said. The main revenue sources for the mafia are drug trafficking (59 billion euros), racketeering (9 billion euros) and usury (12.6 billion euros). These are followed by arms trafficking (5.8 billion euros), contraband (1.2 billion euros) and prostitution (six million euros). If Confesercenti estimates are correct the Mafia businesses are equivalent to approximately 6% of Italy's GDP.