The Mafia - Southern Italy - page 481

The Value of Vice
Today's Mafia means business, its revenues matching those of some of Italy's biggest cor-
porations. This is a far cry from the days of roguish characters bullying shopkeepers into
paying the pizzo (protection money). As journalist Roberto Saviano writes in his Camorra
exposè Gomorra: 'Only beggar Camorra clans inept at business and desperate to survive
still practice the kind of monthly extortions seen in Nanni Loy's film Mi manda Picone' .
The top money-spinner is drugs, and king of that trade is the 'ndrangheta. The Calabrian
mafia is the main player in Transatlantic cocaine trafficking, overseeing its shipment from
Latin America to Europe via West Africa in a business worth a staggering €43 million a
year.
Another trafficked 'product' is people, with an estimated 5000 refugees smuggled annu-
ally into Puglia alone. Many illegal African arrivals are hired out as farmhands by their
Mafia handlers, demanding a percentage of the labourers' below-minimum wages. Most
workers receive no more than €25 for up to two weeks' work on southern farms.
Italy's ongoing financial woes have proven another boon. With liquidity in short supply,
a growing number of hard-pressed companies have turned to dirty money. Mafia-affiliated
loan sharks commonly offer cash with an average interest rate of 10%. In Naples alone, an
estimated 50% of shops are run with Camorra money. Mafia profits are also reinvested in
legitimate real estate, credit markets and businesses, from wind farms in Sicily to property
in London and Sydney. Critics call this 'the Invisible Mafia'.
The Camorra's weekly drug trade rates range from €100 for lookouts to €1000 for those willing to hide the
drugs at home. On the tough streets of Naples' poorest neighbourhoods, the lure of quick cash proves ir-
resistible for many, with kids as young as 12 recruited by local clans.