Essay: When mafia threatens democracy – research shows ordinary people are less honest in countries hit by organised crime
In an article first published on The Conversation, GIOVANNI A TRAVAGLINO, ALBERTO MIRISOLA and PASCAL BURGMER look at the impact of organised crime on “civic honesty”…
European police arrest more than 100 mafia suspects in drug crackdown
Rome, Italy/Brussels, BelgiumReuters Police across Europe arrested more than 100 people on Wednesday in a massive crackdown that targeted the Italian ‘Ndrangheta mafia, with suspects accused of drugs and weapons trafficking with counterparts in Latin America. “Today’s raids are one of the largest operations carried out so far in the fight against Italian organised crime,” said […]
After 30 years, Italy arrests mafia boss Messina Denaro at Sicilian hospital
Palermo, Italy Reuters Italy’s most wanted mafia boss, Matteo Messina Denaro, was arrested by armed police at a private hospital in Sicily on Monday, where the man who has been on the run since 1993 was being treated for cancer. Nicknamed “Diabolik” and “‘U Siccu” (The Skinny One), Messina Denaro had been sentenced in absentia […]
Essay: Armed militias in Brazil hold enormous sway over fate of Amazon – and the global climate
UK-based scholar NICHOLAS POPE, in an article first published on The Conversation, looks at how, with the help of militias and mafias, land-grabbing and resource exploitation continue in the Brazilian Amazon…
Judge slain in Sicily by mafiosi put on path to Catholic sainthood
Rome, ItalyAP A magistrate slain by mobsters in Sicily and praised by two popes has been beatified by the Roman Catholic church on Sunday in the last formal step before possible sainthood. Rosario Livatino was gunned down on a Sicilian highway outside Agrigento as he drove to work in 1990. Three years later, during a […]
Pope seeks to ”liberate” Virgin Mary from the Mafia
Rome, ItalyAP Pope Francis is giving his blessing to a new Vatican thinktank that is seeking to prevent the Mafia and organised crime groups from exploiting the image of the Virgin Mary for their own illicit ends. The Vatican’s Pontifical Marian Academy launched the thinktank on Friday at a conference entitled “Liberating Mary from the […]
Italy’s lockdown labour crunch sparks fears of mafia exploitation
Rome, ItalyThomson Reuters Foundation Mafia exploitation of immigrants on farms in Italy is likely to rise as the coronavirus lockdown brings chronic labour shortages, the government and labour rights groups have warned. Italy normally depends on 370,000 foreign workers to bring in its harvest, but travel restrictions to stop the spread of the virus have […]
POSTCARDS: SICILY LURES VISITORS WITH ‘ETHICAL TOURISM’ FREE OF MAFIA TAINT
ELENA BARTON, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports…
God and the mafia not compatible, says Pope
God and the mafia are not compatible, Pope Francis said on the weekend during a visit to the city of Palermo on the Italian island of Sicily. “You cannot believe in God and be a member of the mafia,” the Pope was quoted as saying during a Mass. “Those belonging to the mafia are not living […]