Italy's Mafia thrives in global financial meltdown
In March, Italy’s intelligence services warned in a report that rising unemployment and the credit crunch could help crime syndicates tighten their tentacles around vast swaths of the nation’s business sector, including supermarkets, real estate and tourism.
A main engine of the mob’s recent strength — the age-old practice of loan-sharking — is thriving as banks hoard cash, allowing the Mafia to elbow in on legitimate businesses.
The mobsters are poised to “acquire control of businesses in difficulty, especially through their consolidated practice of loan-sharking,” as well as to “snap up assets put on the market by enterprises experiencing liquidity crises,” the intelligence report said.
via google.com
One consequence of the credit crunch….