Two scoops of pistachio, one among corruption. For years holidaymakers have guzzled Sicilian gelato at well-known parlours in Palermo, unaware that the booming companies had been managed by way of organised crime.
The fraud used to be a textbook case for detectives educated to smell out grimy cash, however even with 3 mobster classics — a suspicious chapter, a entrance guy and a scheming “Godfather” — it took years for investigators to close the operation down.
The Brioscia logo, made up of 2 ice cream parlours, used to be thriving on the finish of the 2010s, attracting locals and international guests alike with its glittering gold stars on go back and forth web pages.
The department stores had been run by way of Mario Mancuso. At the back of the scenes used to be Michele Micalizzi who had served a number of stretches in prison for Mafia affiliation.
Mancuso took care of the ice cream, Micalizzi controlled the remainder.
That integrated taking a reduce of the income for shielding Mancuso from extortion makes an attempt by way of different gangsters, a judicial supply instructed AFP.
However the corporate used to be within the title of Mancuso’s spouse and when divorce loomed, the lads feared they’d lose regulate.
They declared Brioscia bankrupt in 2021, blaming the 4 million euro ($4.3 million) hollow within the books at the Covid lockdown, the supply mentioned.
“It used to be a flourishing industry, very widely recognized in Palermo. The chapter used to be due to this fact unjustified,” he instructed AFP.
Suspicious investigators used wiretaps to find the 2 males — a long way from being bankrupt — had grand plans to open parlours out of the country.
The pair introduced a brand new corporate known as Sharbat, renaming the malls, the supply mentioned.
“I’m no longer even certain the workers knew who they had been operating for”, a close-by store employee mentioned on situation of anonymity.
Investigators say the lads divided the providence, with Micalizzi passing a part of it to his jailed kinfolk to pay for criminal charges or sundries.
However on August 12, the police pounced, arresting each males and 4 accomplices, and seizing 1.5 million euros.
Mancuso and Micalizzi are being prosecuted for prison affiliation of a mafia nature, extortion and fraudulent chapter.
The Mafia’s billions
Between drug trafficking, racketeering, public procurement, criminal corporations or empty shells devoted to cash laundering, Italy’s Central Financial institution estimates the yearly turnover of the rustic’s organised crime teams at 40 billion euros, or two % of nationwide wealth.
The mob nonetheless makes just right cash from conventional crimes corresponding to drug trafficking. The ‘Ndrangheta within the southern area of Calabria, for instance, is answerable for a lot of Europe’s cocaine industry.
“It additionally makes direct investments within the criminal economic system,” in line with Rocco Sciarrone, who teaches prison psychology at Turin College.
Over two-thirds of mafia infiltrations are within the building, industry, actual property and production sectors, in line with a 2022 record by way of economist Antonio Parbonetti.
The mob additionally has tentacles in agriculture, resorts and eating places, logistics, shipping, and waste control.
How a lot the crime teams “make investments” in each and every sector varies considerably from one area to every other.
“The socio-economic cloth (in Sicily) is made up of small circle of relatives companies that lend themselves rather well to cash laundering,” mentioned Eliseo Davi from Palermo College.
In line with the Parbonetti record, one in two corporations managed by way of the mafia is a so-called “big name” corporate, which generates comfy source of revenue and employs other people, and due to this fact has a large social, financial and political reinforce.
Within the Palermo gelato affair, the corporate didn’t have the important lets in for one of the crucial two stores, prompting requires a probe into whether or not there used to be collusion with public officers.
Close to the parlours lies the previous house of Giovanni Falcone, an anti-mafia pass judgement on whose 1992 assassination by way of the mob brought about a crackdown by way of the state that completely weakened Cosa Nostra.
Identical to US regulation enforcement agent Eliot Ness, who introduced down gangster Al Capone, Falcone had a easy rule: apply the cash.
