As of: March 13, 2024, 1:32 p.m
By: Florian Neuroth
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Lake Garda is a place of longing for German holidaymakers.
According to a report, the mafia in the north of Italy is becoming more and more active - and is doing it differently than before.
Sirmione – For many Munich residents it is now the “Lago di Monaco”.
Tens of thousands of them move across the Alps in the summer months to spend their vacation on Lake Garda.
The bathing paradise in the north of Italy is a place of longing for German tourists and is therefore popular with holidaymakers.
The current partial closure of the “James Bond Road” Strada della Forra along the coast of Lake Garda cannot change this due to a huge avalanche of rubble.
But the idyll is deceptive.
In fact, according to the TV station ORF, the region on Lake Garda is said to be a stronghold of organized crime.
The “Mafia is preparing on Lake Garda” – this was the title under which the ORF reported on the situation in the holiday paradise on Monday evening (March 11th) in the program “South Tyrol Today”.
The program says that seizures and arrests have been increasing in the region in recent years, as organized crime is increasingly active in northern Italy.
Lake Garda is popular with German tourists.
But according to a report by the ORF, the mafia is also becoming increasingly active here.
© Bihlmayerfotografie/Imago
Organized crime is rampant on Lake Garda in Italy, according to a mafia expert
In particular, the tourist resorts on the southern bank, such as the 8,200-inhabitant community of Sirmione, are being infiltrated by the mafia clans, reports the ORF reporter on site.
Since the pandemic, the economic interests of the mafiosi have “increased sharply”.
Journalist Valerio Morabito from
Corriere della Serra
confirms the broadcaster's assessment.
He has been researching organized crime on Lake Garda for more than a decade and a half.
This is “widespread” here, he says.
“The four major clans have settled.”
But why is the mafia active on Lake Garda at all, the station asks.
“The mafia launders their money here,” explains the expert.
“They buy real estate, run nightclubs and arcades, and they also interfere in tourist structures.” The mafia organization 'Ndrangheta only recently acquired a camping facility in Sirmione.
“However, this attempt was uncovered,” reports the journalist.
According to experts, mafia today works more inconspicuously and in the background - on Lake Garda as in Germany
“To date, the police have confiscated 286 assets – including apartments, companies and land,” Morabito tells the station.
This is a sign of the presence of organized crime.
In contrast to the past, the mafia today operates “unobtrusively, in the background”.
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This is also evident in German cities, where organized crime is infiltrating the economy and society.
“The Italian mafia works in secret, which is good for business.
Because then the police and politicians don’t pay attention,” said sociologist Zora Hauser recently in an interview with
IPPEN.MEDIA
.
Observers have long been denouncing the German state's apparent powerlessness against criminal structures.
Police experts criticize that it is made too easy for clans and gangs.
Authorities want to “monitor the mafia at all levels” – money is being moved via crypto currencies
While a financial police force to combat money laundering and other white-collar crimes is currently being discussed in Germany, a similar authority has existed in Italy for a long time: the Guardia di Finanza (GDF), a largely autonomous police force with extensive powers.
For the authorities on Lake Garda, it is now a matter of “monitoring the Mafiosi at all levels,” as Paola Pollini, President of the Lombardy Region Anti-Mafia Commission, tells ORF.
The mafia is constantly developing and, above all, uses the digital space, for example for money laundering.
Pollini says: “Money is now being moved via crypto currencies.”
(Florian Neuroth)