Economic crisis means the Mafia is now ‘Italy’s number one bank’: report

Reuters Jan 10, 2012 – 2:31 PM ET

By James Mackenzie

ROME — Organized crime has tightened its grip on the Italian economy during the economic crisis, making the Mafia the country’s biggest “bank” and squeezing the life out of thousands of small firms, according to a report on Tuesday.

Extortionate lending by criminal groups had become a “national emergency,” said the report by anti-crime group SOS Impresa.