10 - Other activities. cover art

10 - Other activities.

10 - Other activities.

Listen for free

View show details

About this listen

 Other activities.

Vote buying.
Politicians court mafiosi to obtain votes during elections. A mafioso's mere endorsement of a certain candidate can be enough for their clients, relatives, and associates to vote for that candidate. A particularly influential mafioso can bring in thousands of votes for a candidate; such is the respect that a mafioso can command. Between its 630-member Chamber of Deputies and 315+ member Senate, the Italian Parliament has a huge number of seats (roughly 1 per 64,000 citizens) and a large number of political parties competing for them, meaning that a candidate can win with only a few thousand votes. A mafia clan's support can thus be decisive for their success.

Politicians have always sought us out because we can provide votes. [...] between friends and family, each man of honor can muster up forty to fifty other people. There are between 1,500 and 2,000 men of honor in Palermo province. Multiply that by fifty and you get a nice package of 75,000 to 100,000 votes to go to friendly parties and candidates.
— Antonino Calderone.

Politicians usually repay this support with favors, such as sabotaging police investigations or giving contracts and permits.
They are not ideological themselves, though mafiosi have traditionally opposed extreme parties such as Fascists and Communists, and favored center candidates.

Smuggling.
Mafiosi provide protection and invest capital in smuggling gangs. Smuggling operations require large investments (goods, boats, crews, etc.) but few people would trust their money to criminal gangs. It is mafiosi who raise the necessary money from investors and ensure that all parties act in good faith. They also ensure that the smugglers operate in safety.
Mafiosi rarely directly involve themselves in smuggling operations. When they do, it is usually when the operations are especially risky. In this case, they may induct smugglers into their clans in the hope of binding them more firmly. This was the case with heroin smuggling, where the volumes and profits involved were too large to keep the operations at arm's length.

Bid rigging.
The Sicilian Mafia in Italy is believed to have a turnover of €6.5 billion through control of public and private contracts. Mafiosi use threats of violence and vandalism to muscle out competitors and win contracts for the companies that they control. They rarely manage the businesses that they control, but take a cut of their profits, usually through payoffs (pizzo).

Loan sharking.
In a 2007 publication, the Italian small-business association Confesercenti reported that about 25.2 percent of Sicilian businesses were indebted to loan sharks, who collected around €1.4 billion a year in payments. This figure rose during the late-2000s recession, as tighter lending by banks forced the desperate to borrow from the Mafia.

Forbidden crimes.
Certain types of crimes are forbidden by Cosa Nostra, either by members or freelance criminals within their domains. Mafiosi are generally forbidden to commit theft (burglary, mugging, etc.). Kidnapping is also generally forbidden, even by non-mafiosi, as it attracts a great deal of public hostility and police attention. These rules have been violated from time to time, both with and without the permission of senior mafiosi.


Wikipedia: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

This episode includes AI-generated content.
No reviews yet