Mafia launders dirty money in clean energy - Europol

Italian organised crime is known all over the world, to the point that the term ‘Mafia’ is now understood across the globe as referring to the organised criminal underworld. Literature on the subject is abundant, ranging from history, sociology and criminology to fiction and plain entertainment. The distinctive character, looks, habits, idiosyncrasies and jargon of the Mafiosi have been described, analysed, explained and imitated. Apparently, everybody is familiar with Italian organised crime.

Nevertheless, a document analysing the overall scope of Italian organised crime at an international level from the law enforcement (LE) perspective, and the threat it poses in the EU and beyond, does not exist. This document is intended to fill that important information gap.

Extract from the Report:

EMERGING TRENDS

To quote a well known Italian Public Prosecutor , “ Italian OCGs today are the only EU economic competitors that suffer the opposite problem of all other entrepreneurs: too much cash money and not enough possibilities of reinvestment ”. This concept, combined with the ongoing economic crisis, explains the recent trend towards infiltration in the legal economy : through sophisticated money laundering schemes and through careful investments in particular sectors, these groups not only attempt to justify their immense wealth, but present themselves on the market as strong competitors who can afford to operate “at a loss”, creating in the long run a situation of quasi-monopoly that undermines the basic principles of free market.

As mentioned earlier, there are increasing reports of Italian OCGs engaging in the so called ‘Alternative or Green Energy ’ market, for example investments in wind energy farms. Such projects offer attractive opportunities to benefit from generous MS and EU grant and tax subsidies, but apart from effectively exploiting eco-friendly incentives for their financial gain, they also create possibilities to launder proceeds of crime via legal business structures. Overall the phenomenal growth of the Internet has brought positive developments in everyday life . It offers a wide range of opportunities to business and public alike, including facilitating an unprecedented reach to the wider public and providing secure information exchange (including the use of popular

encrypted messaging services such as Skype, Viber, Whatsapp, etc. , ), These opportunities apply equally for Organised Crime , enabling it to engage in highly profitable quasi-legal or illegal services or activities and any effective strategy to counter OC will have to take this key enabler into consideration.

Easy profits, low regulatory scrutiny,and possibilities to operate anonymously are an inevitable attraction to Italian Organised Crime groups who, though the nature and scale of the threat is not yet clear, are likely to increase their engagement in this field in the near future, Cybercrime in the wider sense is the new frontier , and the mafias have a pioneering attitude to new markets.

Link to the detailed report: click here

Mafia launders dirty money in clean energy – Europol