Prosecutor Melillo: "The language of the mafia is no longer the language of crime, but the language of the market"

According to the newspaper Le Mond, 61-year-old Giovanni Melillo has been a high prosecutor in Rome since May 2022. Previously, he headed the prosecutor's office in Naples, where he was responsible for fighting the Camorra, a mafia active in southern Italy. Melillo is currently coordinating investigations by the country's regional anti-mafia departments.

Based on his own experience, the national prosecutor came to the conclusion: during periods of various crises - medical, economic, geopolitical - organized crime groups increase their influence on the real economy and international trade.

Thousands of Italians who suffered at different times at the hands of mafiosi considered Melillo's words offensive. People remember the events of 2018 in Palermo, where 46 Cosa Nostra militants were immediately detained during a large-scale operation. They were accused of murder, extortion, arson, illegal possession of weapons and other crimes. Among those who fell into the network of the police were not only ordinary mafiosi, but also several very prominent figures in the criminal world of Italy. Including, 80-year-old Settimino Mineo, the leader and "veteran" of the Sicilian mafia.

The Italian mafia in its activities has long gone beyond the territory of Italy and acquired an international character. Therefore, according to criminologists, the effectiveness of combating such a most dangerous phenomenon within individual countries is extremely low today, and consolidation of the forces of all interested states is required.

In Italy, in recent years, the trend of increasing clashes between mafia organizations and government agencies has intensified, the isfic.info portal notes. Paradoxically, some experts regard this as a positive symptom in the life of Italian society. They believe that this indicates the penetration of the mafia into the core of the state, or even the transformation of organized crime groups.

Once, the Italian judge Giovanni Falcone, who tragically died at the hands of the mafia, said that in the fight against organized crime, the authorities often forgot that Cosa Nostra and other organized crime groups using mafia methods in their activities are exclusively criminal communities. On this basis, mafiosi should be prosecuted both for individual crimes committed by them, and for the very fact of belonging to such organizations, which in itself constitutes a crime.