January 21, 2023
Italy

Mafia goes green

Daily Star | 20 Jan 2023 | BRENDAN MCFADDEN

The Sicilian Mafia reckons it can recover from losing its Godfather by going green.

Newly-promoted Dons are turning to environmentally-friendly schemes to make dough for their organised crime empire.

Cops say despite the arrest of Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, 60, this week, the battle against Cosa Nostra is not over because it is earning billions of euros each year creating solar and wind farms.

They are investing in renewable energy to make cash alongside their more traditional interests in construction and waste disposal.

Top cop Antonello Parasiliti Molica said: “There is still a huge amount to do. While Denaro’s capture marks the end of an era, the Mafia has been reorganising for some time.

“There are now less deaths but more underground activity and more money laundering.”

Investigators previously found links between Sicily’s Mafia and wind farms in Italy – a country where wind energy sells for a higher price than anywhere in the world.

Investments in Italy’s green industries more than quadrupled from 2005 to 2017 and most of its 900,000 green energy generating systems are solar power plants. Denaro, dubbed the last “godfather”, once bragged he could “fill a cemetery” with his victims.

The Sicilian mafia plans to come back stronger after their Godfather was caught by turning green.

Mess with them and you’ll be sleeping with the sustainably sourced fishes!

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2023/01/21/mafia-goes-green/