The twentieth century which is almost at an end, especially the last decades have been marked by the presence of trans national criminal phenomena.
Not that in the past it did not exist: it is enough to remember piracy, the slave trade of centuries past, and many more examples which are easy to recollect. However, we cannot deny that - and the paradox is only apparent - the socio-economic development which even with signifcant differences has in this second part of the century taken place in all, or almost all, nations has been a wheel of transmission for the diffusion of trans-national organised crime.
The increasing power of organised crime, particularly during the last 15 years, has placed Italy in the position of having to consider more and more incisive and effective measures to face the attacks coming with increasing dangerousness from the Mafia and Mafia-like organisations.
The violence of criminal associations, their dimensions, the impressive amount of money gained from criminal activities, their capacity to corrupt, to intimidate, to coerce, and to defile at all levels have finally convinced everyone that the phenomenon is a serious threat, not only to the orderly development of the socio-economic life of a society, but also, above all, to the independence and autonomy of the institutions.
In this way, at the threshold of the year 2000 the phenomenon of organised crime has finally revealed itself for what it really is: a "cancer", which deeply notches the economic and social fabric and produces metastasis able to threaten the heart of the nation. Therefore a complex strategy articulated on many fronts and aimed at contrasting effectively the criminal associations has been devised.
It is a very difficult task and still a long way from being accomplished. No nation no matter how vigilant and sensitive to the problem has been able to date to contrast organised crime in a convincing and adequate manner.
Nevertheless, in Italy recently a series of important steps forward has been achieved together with some successes. Thus it can be useful and productive to single out and analyse the most significant aspects of the innovations introduced and in particular of those which have produced positive results. Such analysis is so much more useful during a conference like this one having as its topic trans-national criminal phenomena. As a matter of fact, organised crime - at an operative, inter-relational and structural level - is strictly trans-national, therefore the need for a strategy common to all nations concerned is obviosly clear.
If therefore such a need is taken for granted, the nations of the international community can and must exchange experiences, guidelines and instruments so as to ensure homogeneity and continuity of action. Also, rationality and cooperation must prevail in the preparation and in the use of the resources, together with maximum synergy and incessant osmosis in order to improve the inspiring philosophy at the basis of the common action. True international scope, this the key phrase to keep in mind when devising national activities aimed at countrasting effectively and defeating organised crime which has made of its international nature its winning weapon.
In this respect, it would be of interest to an examine necessarily in general terms and without any attempt at completeness the most significant legislative innovations (adopted in recent years) at the criminal - substantial and criminal procedural - level and also at the investigative level on the basis of the most recent Italian experience.
Therefore we must note that the crime of "conspiracy of a Mafia-type" introduced by the Italian legislator more than a decade ago, together with the traditional crime of "conspiracy" proved to be a precious instrument for the judiciary dealing with criminal organisations. The articulation of these provisions, with specific regard to the value of the associative ties, to the "rule of silence", to the attempt at gaining control over economic activities, especially public-contracts, to the interference in electoral consultations, has certainly represented an important recognition - as far as physiognomy and operativeness are concerned - of the evolution of criminal organisations.
The judicial experience of the last decade - but not only of this period - has demonstrated that the specific conspiracy crime is a crucial legal instrument, absolutely necessary to fight organised crime. It seems reasonable in order to strengthen the action of the international community in said context to include in the criminal codes of the various nations the crime of Mafia-type criminal conspiracy, possibly in similar, if not identical terms, to those used in the Italian criminal code. Ideally there should be a single model to which the various legislations should, if not conform, at least come as close as possible. A crime figure as complete as possible in scope, fruit of experiences already matured. The Italian example is certainly representative in this respect, even though it is not unique since other criminal legislations have already come across the crime of conspiracy (I refer to the French criminal code).
Among the new types of crime included in the Italian legislation there is the crime of "electoral exchange" (agrement between Mafia groups and politicians to exchange votes with privileges) which extends the same penalty for participating in a Mafia-type conspiracy to those who are promised the votes in exchange for money: a reality which the investigations had identified and pointed out as one of the most insidious activity by the Mafia-type associations.
Of specific interest also the introduction of the crime of money laundering into the Italian criminal system, which has recently been modified in its initial structure. Such an evolution deserves some description. Having recognised the need to sanction as seriously criminal an activity - money laundering - which has proven to be highly functional to the working of the criminal organisations, the Italian legislator has so defined the figure of the "launderer": whoever replaces money, goods, and other funds originating from crimes of armed robbery, extortion, kidnapping for ransom, production or trafficking of drugs with money, other goods and other funds or whoever hinders the identification of their origin from the aforesaid crimes. Successively, after only a few years and after the investigative and judiciary experiences, the structure of the money laundering crime has been deeply modified, including not only the proceeds from the above mentioned crime, but also those (money, goods, and other funds) deriving from any other crime. The change is particularly meaningful and the crime of laundering, as provided for and sanctioned by the Italian criminal code, appears to be worthy of careful and deep attention as it is an effective instrument in the fight against organised crime.
Similar evolution has had another new crime introduced by the Italian legislation on the basis of the experience matured during investigations: "using money, goods or assets of illegal origin". A crime which punishes anyone re-investing in economic or financial activities money, goods, or other funds originating from crime (excluding cases of association in "fencing" or "laundering").
One of the sectors in which organised crime has recently increased its activity is that of "lending money or other movable assets" imposing very high interests. In Italy this phenomenon has taken on, with the connotations revealed above, alarming dimensions, so much so as to require urgent legislative measures and specific attention to study legislative improvements to adjust to the multi-faceted and changing criminal reality. There is also the need that all nations dealing with pervasive and well rooted organised crime adopt the necessary provisions and investigative instruments in order to deepen their operative capacity in the sector of "usury", which could offer further grounds for criminal activities. In this respect it is necessary to keep in mind that in the Italian legislation we have already had for some time the crime of usury that implies taking advantage in presence of conditions of economic or financial difficulty of a person carrying out a business or professional activity. These are some of the new aspects of criminal activity which for their importance and significance require maximum attention and operators should make full use of experiences already acquired.
Before examining the most incisive innovations enforced in recent times in Italy in criminal proceedings and in investigations, it is important to mention briefly the new crime of "illegal transfer and illegal possession of valuables", provided for as the aforementioned usury, in law number 356 of 1992. We should also mention the legislative interventions which have introduced particular duties to be accompllished by certain professionals.Thus, if in the course of a transfer of funds the suspicion arises that the money or assets may come from a laundering process, the bank operator responsible for the aforementioned operation must report it.
This is the starting point for some brief considerations on the support which can, and must come in the fight against organised crime, from banking professionals. In fact, it cannot be ignored that banks and holding companies, together with the bodies monitoring stock-market operations - limiting the list only to categories of a more immediate knowledge - represent precious reference and sources of information for contrasting criminal associations. The difficulty in obtaining an effective and qualified collaboration in such a delicate sector is also to be recognised in view of the economic interests at stake. Nevertheless, we need to convince ourselves that such support is vital that, to obtain it the declarations of intent are not sufficient. It is in fact now necessary to promote a true "new culture" among the operators, so as to overcome the sectorial and national barriers: a new culture to understand that the "contaminated" funds are contaminated but also contaminating and that, at the end of the day, today's international economic-financial picture has connotations which make the contamination from a system, a single body, or a single nation to others extremely easy. Undoubtedly, a lot has been achieved through the introduction of some legislation like the aforementioned; the same Strasbourg Convention of 8 December 1990 about "money laundering" represents an important development in the right direction. However unquestionably a lot still remains to be accomplished, as the achievement of an international synergy is now imperative; it is in fact in the field of international co-operation that the most conspicuous and meaningful fruits must be achieved. The theme is of extraordinary interest and it is such that it requires systematic study and a strong effort on everyone's part. Banks, companies, financial systems and organisations of the single nations must realise the need to equip themselves with common, up to date instruments to avert the risk - which is more and more a cruel reality - of being exploited by organised crime for its own end: the risk of changing from subjects of ordinary economic and financial development into multipliers of the profits of organised crime.

As to the criminal procedure code, the Italian legislator has introduced a series of provisions which adapt the legal proceedings to the peculiarity of organised crime. From this point of view, specific measures on custody have been introduced, making detention while awaiting trial compulsory when proceeding against crimes linked to criminal associations, always when concrete evidence exists. In the same field, changes in the discipline on the time limits and the extent of preliminary investigations have been introduced . The activity of investigation has been increased, widening the judiciary police's and the public prosecutors' investigative powers; provisions have been introduced to favour the acquisition during proceedings of evidence from other trials; the regime of objections has been modified and several legislative provisions have been approved in the field of precautionary measures on property, so as to affect rapidly and effectively large economic resources referable to organised crime.
These are only brief examples but they help to understand the intent of the Italian legislator to adjust criminal proceedings on matters of organised crime - avoiding distortions and without affecting the general principles at the basis of the criminal code in force - so as to meet the specific needs emerged from decades of experience.
The Italian legislator worked towards a more rigorous trial in the field of organised crime. Such attitue was translated in the provision contained in Article 41 bis of penitentiary regulations - which establishes a specific and rigorous prison regime for prisoners guilty of Mafia-type crimes. The ratio legis is not just in the imposition of more severe rules for their own sake, but rather in the need to hinder and weaken the associative ties and the workings of criminal organisations even within and from within the prison institutions. The provision is proving to be a very useful instrument in the fight against organised crime and the increasing intolerance and hostility of the prisoners who are subjected to it confirms such evaluation.
An examination of the most significant legislative innovations in this field cannot ignore – but should instead underline their extraordinary importance - the provisions introduced into the Italian criminal code to reward those who decide to cooperate with the judicial authorities, reducing their penalties. In particular, whoever, after participating actively in Mafia-type criminal associations, decides to co-operate actively with the judiciary, confessing the crimes committed and giving concrete, verifiable and useful evidence to prove the responsibilities of third parties in crimes, or to help in the search for fugitives, can benefit from significant reductions of the detention term to be served or alternatively can serve sentence in alternative regimes, notwithstanding existing laws in the matter. The law provides for suitable measures to protect their own and their families' safety and identity and last but not least, to provide economic assistance if necessary.
Mainly thanks to this "rewarding" legislation, Italian investigators can at presently rely on about a thousand collaborators with justice: the confessions and the depth of knowledge coming from them have greatly aided in undermining criminal organisations.
In this respect it should be said that when the Italian justice found itself confronted with the lengthy and bloody season of terrorism, it was able to get a significant contribution from the collaborators of justice. Terrorism which, as we know, has been defeated, was undoubtedly a very different phenomenon from organised crime. Nevertheless, the winning experiences acquired then are applicable also to the fight against organised crime. As a matter of fact, truthfully the introduction of the specifcic conspiracy crimes, the special legislation for the "collaborators" (pentiti), and their contribution have been precious to defeat terrorism in Italy, and they are turning out to be equally precious in the fight against organised crime, which is today experiencing a very promising, dynamic and fruitful phase.
The most important measures adopted by the Italian legislator to devise a strategy to counteract organised crime include the renewal of the Public Prosecutors' offices.
The structure of the Mafia-type organisations - the closest reference is to the Sicilian "Cosa Nostra" - with the associations (or families) well rooted locally and with the ramified interconnected criminal businesses, has several times over posed the problem of a unitary approach to the phenomenon. Experience has demonstrated that an excessive fragmentation of the prosecuting offices dealing with investigations on Mafia-type organisations represents an obstacle to the knowledge of the real dimensions of the criminal phenomenon, of its ramifications, spheres of influence and modus operandi: substantially it finishes by influencing negatively the quality and the effectiveness of the action of the enquiring authorities.
Such state of affairs was at the origin of a modification in the organisation of the offices of the public prosecutors with the creation of the Direzioni Distrettuali Anti-Mafia (D.D.A.) and of the Direzione Nazionale Anti-Mafia (D.N.A.).
The D.D.A. have been established at the Public Prosecutors offices in the cities where a Corte d'Appello is located, they have exclusive jurisdiction over facts related to organised crime within that district. At central level there is the D.N.A. - the so called super-Prosecutor's office, which had been wanted by Giovanni Falcone and which works as reference and connecting point for the local offices. In particular the Procuratore Nazionale Antimafia - who avail himself of twenty national assistant public prosecutors and who can rely also on the Anti-Mafia Central Investigative Agency (D.I.A.), a specialised inter-force police corps - co-ordinates and guides the activity of the D.D.A.s and, therefore, also all the prosecuting offices which carry out all the investigations in the field of organised crime. Among the tasks of the Procuratore Nazionale Anti-mafia is the creation of a complete central data-bank, connected with the D.D.A. so as to ensure, in real time, access for the interested operators, to data available on a national scale.
The new organisations of the investigating offices and in particular, the creation of several groups of public prosecutors - distributed throughout the national territory, connected and co-ordinated through a central office - being highly professional and having vast experience in the field of organised crime, is undoubtedly one of the first causes of the present favourable trend in the fight against the Mafia and other similar criminal associations. In particular, a noticeable benefit in such a direction is the fact that a large number of investigating magistrates has decided to follow sistematically and constantly – almost exclusively - investigations on organised crime. The D.N.A. co-ordinates and encourages investigations and allows the rationalisation in the use of the resources and, above all, it ensures that unitary approach we dramatically felt the need of so many times in the past.
A concrete and highly meaningful example of the importance of such an approach is represented by the state of the investigations on the mass-murders carried out in several Italian cities at different times in the past: the investigative links among the various D.D.A.s and the constant co-ordination of their activity by the D.N.A. have up to now produced very important results in understanding the origin of such serious crimes and in finding those responsible for them.
Speaking about the Procura Nazionale Anti-mafia, we must observe that for the peculiarities of its tasks, the flexibility of its structures, and the centrality of its role, it could become the ideal interlocutor and reference point for foreign offices and bodies with similar characteristics: in perspective this should lead to the creation of a system to exchange investigative and judicial information of international interest in real time - in total compliance with national regulations. The indications coming from the first experiences appear encouraging. Even with reference to this perspective some details may be useful, in general terms, about the activity carried out by the Office which I have the honour and the burden of directing.
After the inevitable initial period of adjustment, made even more complex by the absolute cultural novelty it represented within in the Italian judiciary - the Procura Nazionale Anti-mafia, now in its third year of life, has carried out its strategy to fight organised crime with increasing incisiveness, becoming an effective centre of co-ordination aimed at developing and refining, adding or extending within the national territory, the precious specific experiences the different local offices and public prosecutors' offices.
Limiting it, for obvious reasons, to a simple mention, the impressive job for the creation of a colossal and versatile data-bank destined to become a vital instrument for the operators in the sector, can be useful to point out to everyone's attention the specific activity performed throughout the territory by the Procura Nazionale.
Thanks to these developments and increased flexibility the Procura Nazionale can now be directly present with its own magistrates in the D.D.A.s dealings with the most important organised crime investigations. This is how it was and will continue to be, systematically, in Sicily; in Caltanissetta, Palermo, Catania, and Messina. In Calabria, Reggio and Catanzaro. The Procura Nazionale has supplied and continues to supply to the main cities of the other two regions, Naples and Bari, interested in organised crime, analogous and important direct contributions.
Such presence on the national territory of magistrates from the Procura Nazionale - far from being a simple strengthening of the Procure Distrettuali - have been "gauged" is such a way as to strengthen the exercise of the functions the legislator has entrusted the the Procuratore Nazionale Anti-mafia with, so as to ensure timely and complete investigations against the Mafia, the Camorra, the 'Ndrangheta and organised crime in general. In this way the process of continuous osmosis between the Procure Distrettuali e the Procura Nazionale has been enhanced, this osmosis is conditio sine qua non to co-ordinate the investigative activity.
This function of co-ordination, fundamental prerogative of the Procuratore Nazionale, has developed throughout the national territory and has frequently aided the reaching of a solution in cases of dispute between the single Procure Disterettuali before they became formal contrasts ex. article 54 and following (from the Criminal Proceedings Code). It has also helped to realise a constant investigative connection, wherever the situation required it.
The instrument of investigative interview has frequently been used by the Procura Nazionale in view of providing constant and homogeneous impulse to investigations at national level. The strategy which has inspired such a use has left - obviously with the co-ordination of competence - to the exclusive responsibility of the single Procure Distrettuali in the context of the respective operative autonomies, all the cases, even complex ones, related to specific geographic realities. Procura Nazionale has taken steps to handle directly cases with national and multi-district implications. Articulated in said view, the investigative interviews carried out by the Sostituti Procuratori Nazionali have enabled, for the most part, to discover and acquire significant investigative inputs which are then rapidly distributed to the various Procure Distrettuali.
The Procura Nazionale has been partcularly active in the field of money laundering carrying out specific investigative activities and holding several multi-district meetings; specific elements within criminal proceedings worthy of further investigation were discovered and closely examined. Sostituti Procuratori were entrusted with specific tasks and a project has been started aimed at creating, on the basis of existing proceeding and regulatory provisions, inter-district pools able to closely examine, within the over-all strategy of contrast to "money-laundering", those insufficiently meaningful data emerging from single proceedings which could instead be usefully combined at a multi-district and national level.
In the context of the activity aimed at upgrading the fight against organised crime and against "money laundering" we can insert the intensive job done by the Procura Nazionale to obtain ever wider forms of international collaboration, especially with the Eastern European countries. In order to increase international co-operation, the Procura Nazionale has been active in many directions, within the U.N. Working and Study Group on the topics treated during the UN World Conference on trans-national organised crime held in Naples last November. Also bilateral meetings between operators from various nations (Rumania, the Baltic countries, Slovakia, and so on), discovering, focusing, and pointing out sectors to be examined jointly and to devise a super-national synergy.
In this spirit it is interesting to underline that a a member of the Procura Generale at the Rumanian Supreme Court has - in the context of cultural and professional exchanges existing between the two nations and being regulated by appropriate conventions - asked for and obtained the possibility of attending a stage of professional specialisation in Italy at the Procura Nazionale Anti-Mafia: this in view of initiating and accomplishing in his own country structures - legislative, investigative, etc. - against organised crime following the Italian experience. The first phase of said stage satisfactorily carried out by our foreign colleague ended last November.
I have here to limit my examination of the topic within the terms stated so far, which are evidently very far from covering all aspects of the issue. It is necessary, moreover, to underline that the overall results obtained and the precious experiences matured in this initial two years of work allow us to be very optimistic for the future. Objectives can be reached that onlly a few years ago seemed unachievable against organised crime. We need, however, to insist with tenacious, constanct, and professional effort on this path without hesitation, lowering of moral tension or any kind of defection.
It must be clearly understood that, hesitation, perplexity, or unclear thinking - or worse, the lack - of certainty and of precise and rigorous criteria can become a weapon in the hands of organised crime.
In a nut-shell, the most significant guide-lines which can be induced from the complex Italian experiences in the subject of the fight against organised crime could be summarised as follows:
- the legislator gave shape to the specific associative crime, whose definition is being refined in function of the increasing knowledge of criminal associations;
- the introduction of new types of crimes - first of all "money laundering" - as a better response to the most recent operative reality of organised crime;
- the tailoring of the criminal proceedings to fit organised criminal activities, and the peculiarity of the Mafia-type associations and the harmonisation - as far as possible - of the criminal procedings provisions regulating the subject in the various legislations;
- a review of company, banking, and financial crimes and the identification in the subject of economic crime, of legal instruments capable of contrasting the actions of the Mafia-type associations;
- the establishment of an adequate - possibly with homogeneous general-lines at an international level - "legislation in favour of the collaborators with justice "supergrasses" with such characters as to encourage such co-operation;
- the identification of new operative sectors of organised crime (such as the trafficking of strategic material and nuclear substances, of the organisation of flows of clandestine immigrants and so on), and of the new forms of association and expression of organised crime in countries where important political, economic and social changes take place (Eastern Europe, the Caribbean area, Africa, and South America);
- the creation of enquiring judiciary structures - like the Public Prosecutors'offices - highly specialised, adequately co-ordinated, and tasked with dealing, systematically and exclusively, with investigations in the subject of organised crime;
- the promotion of a steady system - hinged upon the central offices with national competence like the Italian Procura Nazionale Anti-mafia - aimed at enhancing international exchange in real-time of information with an investigative-judiciary character having a specific trans-national value.
The aforementioned - and certainly not thorough - guide-lines represent the result of experiences made in that field by Italian operators at high cost of blood by committed magistrates and investigators engaged in the fight against organised crime. The conscious, multiformed, and not limited contribution of many other nations interested in the phenomenon to collect the individual national experience into a valid and useful operative protocol for everyone, by preparing common and homogeneous instruments, able to provide a clear and effective response, if not definite, to the demand of justice which the prolonged emergency situation makes always more pressing.
No discussion on organised crime can be completed without talking about the problem of corruption, since between the two phenomena there is more inter-relationship and contiguity than one can possibly think.
These recent years have been a bitter period as is now under everyone's eyes. The phenomenon of corruption, which could have appeared limited to more backward societies, to nations afflicted with long lasting problems of underdevelopment, has proven to be present everywhere in modern societies. Nations of true democratic beliefs, of ancient cultural traditions, of advanced technical and industrial development have been contaminated, - it needs to be underlined - beyond any possible imagination. The old continent, cradle of civilisation, has been breeding ground for the "evil plant" of corruption. Besides, in every latitude such corruption has shown that it can root and proliferate without geographical, economic or political distinction. Therefore, at the threshold of the third millennium, the international community of nations finds itself confronting a real "cancer", capable of deeply conditioning and influencing its development.
Therefore, the specific interest growing at the international level is justified and - even more - the increasing and alarming warnings are more than legitimate.
However, we need to underline - and this fact deserves careful attention - that even though the international Community has in the last 15 years devoted time, attention and studies to the phenomenon of corruption, this has continued to spread and flourish.
It is worth noting that already in Resolution n. 1314 of 15 December, 1975 - the U.N. General Assembly touched upon the problem of corruption in international commercial transactions. Among the most recent meetings whose objective was to study corruption, is useful to recall the U.N. conference held in Hagues, in December 1989, the U.N. 8th congress on crime prevention held in Cuba in August-September 1990, the international anti-corruption conferences in Washington (1983), New York (1985), Hong Kong (1987), Sydney (1989), Amsterdam (1982), Cancùn (November 1993), and Budapest (January 1994). The list is not complete but it is an account of how wide the interest is in this phenomenon. Positive results in the counter-activities to the aforesaid are instead still lacking, with the serious risk that it could be considered a lost battle. A sort of necessary evil, inborn in man and in his way of living and working within organised social modules; a type of inevitable price to pay fatally on the road to development of human societies. Such a conclusion would result devastating, so much so, that the guard-level against corruption or the cry of alarm will never be loud enough.
The Italian judiciary investigations over the last few years have discovered a wide scenario in which corruption results as having a specific connection with illegal financing of political parties, with the system of public contracts, with wide sectors of high finance, and of the industrial world.
Besides this, the many pending judicial inquiries in various countries seem to show - even only in Europe - how the phenomenon, far from being only Italian, is unfortunately quite widespread in other countries, with connotations more or less similar, and with deep roots.
What needs to be underlined is that in geographic areas where organised crime is more rooted, corruption presents itself with more specific and alarming characteristics. Truthfully, even if not all corruption is organised crime, at the same time we should say that wherever there is organised crime there is corruption.
In fact, it is an absolute peculiarity of the Mafia and of Mafia-type organisations to use systematically violence and corruption.
It is necessary to state that it is in the nature of a criminal organisation to discourage competition, as it aims at gaining either a leading position in the illegal production of goods or services or a dominant position in the legal markets. This stems from the means the criminal businessman uses both for the internal organisation and for acting in the market place: the authority stemming from intimidation and corruption. For the criminal enterprise the conditioning on the legal economy is an integral part of its activity.
The power which the criminal enterprise must exert in order to extract profits from drug dealing, from the exclusive or privileged access on public contracts or, from extortion must be full and similar to the power of the State. This is particularly true when - as it is the case in Mafia associations - the criminal enterprise wishes to assume nation-like connotations: to "protect" illegal and legal activities against violence coming from itself or from third parties, to protect public order from kidnappings or child-delinquency, to act as intermediary in the collection and re-negotiation of credits, to procure jobs, business licences and pensions. This tendency manifests itself particularly wherever the State entitled to have the monopoly on repression is weak, where the culture of the institutions is not developed or is totally absent: wherever the conditions for corruption are ideal so that organised crime can act extensively.
Another peculiar aspect of the impact of criminal enterprises on the legal economy is the attempt to acquire power over the legal activities. First of all the accumulation of huge resources through legal activities requires the research of appropriate means of "money laundering" and at the same time, it offers the opportunity of making extra profits by acquiring other enterprises or by manipulating the prices of products on the market: it will be possible to re-invest in the illegal activities only part of the accumulated funds. A criminal business achieves the result of altering the market development exerting violence and corruption. The widening of its area of control is a necessity for an organisation which founds its own strength on intimidation and submission. It is not a coincidence that the crime of " acquiring control over the economic activities, concessions, authorisations, public contracts and public services" is the main objective which the Italian law imputes to Mafia-type associations in the criminal code.
The way in which the criminal business influences the legal economy produces serious effects on the economic well being of a nation: when the State loses the monopoly over the functions of protection of public order, of contracts, of property these functions are carried out in a distorted way geared to consolidate and extend the associative ties at the basis of the criminal business; this flourishes when the rules are uncertain; there is degradation in the public services (transports, health services, the public administration and so on) and decay, with the progress of corruption, of fundamental values like the feeling of nation and the loyalty to the institutions.
Preliminary requisite for a counter action against criminal organisations and corruption - functional or not to organised crime - is that the State fulfills correctly and effectively its functions. This is particularly necessary for those functions touching the border between legal and illegal economy: the fiscal function, the management of State companies; the assigning of public works.
It is easy to recognise that an integral part of the activity of the criminal businesses consists in acquiring dominant positions in the markets of products, work, finance and property. This means that criminal businesses can effectively be countered by an ordinary administrative action aimed at protecting the freedom of initiative in those sectors. Only the awareness that their efforts to monopolise the legal markets of products, work, property, or finance will be countered daily and that operators doing the transactions at anomalous prices will be singled out and expelled from the market - with ensuing administrative and criminal inquiries - could discourage the criminal entrepeneur from persisting in his activity.
The considerations up to now developed demonstrate that economic and financial relations exist between legal economy and criminal economy. There is a need, therefore, to accurately regulate the behaviour of legal operators. In many important occasions legal operators, businessmen, and professionals have been called upon to respect certainl codes of behaviour which are undoubtedly valid and have a very precise moral meaning. It is a way to launch a signal to widen the difference between the rules in force in the legal sector as opposed to the rules and the behaviours widespread in criminal economy.
The primary element of this different behaviour is that of making the most of information and transparency. If criminal economy develops in ignorance and misinformation, legal economy must focus on clear information: naturally, it is essential that everyone behaves according to this rule so as to avoid that legal "profiteers" use incoherent information. This goes directly to the heart of the correct functioning of the markets and to the role authorities tasked with guaranteeing the correctness and the completeness of information must fulfill.
The issue could be developed and articulated even further, but we need now to draw our conclusions.
We have seen how many intelligence and operative difficulties exist for an effective fight against organised crime, and the impact corruption has. We have also seen the growing trans national connotation of organised crime and of corruption.
The trans-national nature of criminal organisations is not a conceptual category, but it is rather a precise and concrete connotation that acquired experiences have constantly demonstrated.
The most profitable traffics managed by organised crime present such dimensions, operative planning and character as to require a trans-national dimension. The various national criminal associations must, therefore, contaminate the nations through which said traffics pass and develop; they must, in substance reproduce themselves and expand at an international level or they must at least closely connect with local criminal organisations co-interested in the traffics. In this way, a situation of mutual exchange between various Mafias is established, and it also happens that "genetic changes" come about following a transplant from one latitude to another, from one nation to another. These circumstances hinder the knowledge of and the fight against this phenomenon. This is the way in which the Sicilian Mafia originated the American or Canadian Mafia, and the 'Ndrangheta from Calabria became connected with Australian organised crime, the Turkish Mafia off-shot into Italy, the Colombian Mafia projected itself into the American territory, the Japanese and Chinese Mafias branched out throughout Asia, (they certainly do not neglect other geographic areas) and how the Russian and Eastern European Mafias are now appearing on the Western stage.
All of this has a single and precise name, a unique and unmistakable meaning: it is called the "trans-nationality" of organised crime. No nation can consider itself reasonably safe and almost all antions end up either as importers or exporters of organised crime.
This is the reason why so many times the need for an effective co-operation among nations to confront this fearsome enemy has been underlined; to this enemy we should show a strong common commitment to defeat it.
A particularly eloquent message would be represented, in my view, by reaching concrete understandings to promote collaboration to allow, at least for some crimes, timely investigative activities at an international level. When their effectiveness is directly proportional to their timely application. The easiest example refers to telephone tapping, room bugging, and searching, but undoubtedly the topic can be easily developed and extended. I am obviously not thinking about an international validity simply given to certain activities, nor do I underestimate the delicate aspects concerning national sovereignty. Even so, I am sure that if the trans-national character of organised crime is not a cliché but rather a terrible reality, it is the necessary to adjust the level and the quality of the contrasting action. To do this, we need to sacrifice some of our
our national prerogatives. We need to give an effective trans-national connotation to the fight against trans-national organised crime, but said connotation must be concretely operative, and not merely a declaration, or what is worse, a declamation. If a frame of mind is established in this direction than the application of common technical schemes will certainly not be a problem. And, I believe that opportunities like today's in which we compare different national experiences can greatly contribute to creating the conditions for the formation of said frame of mind.
It would be, on the other hand, really irrational and depressing at the highest level - allow me to underline it here - that in a European Union with no borders, and with monetary union, there wouldn't be room for a true unity, not only of intents but also of resources, of instruments, of working methods, for the common fight against the most insidious form of crime nestled in the social fabric of our societies.