1. Organised crime as a subversive phenomenon
The idea of "subversion", so far interpreted as a political phenomenon, has changed over the last few years and has extended widely to include every attempt at affecting social and political life.
Economic and social development, widespread culture and education, high tech means and computers now available at low prices have widened the possibilities to hit civil life and political institutions.
Terrorist and criminal groups which represented a recognisable "traditional enemy" gave way to individuals and organisations covering their illegal activities with legal front companies. Needless to say that the ability to play "hide and seek" with Government enforcement agencies makes the latter far more dangerous and potentially disruptive.
The attack carried out in Japan, where nerve gas spread through Tokyo subway at the height of the rush hour, has shown that chemical weapons - once manufactured and employed only by military - can be quite easily acquired and used for terroristic purposes.
People or groups responsible for this attack, to which a great deal of publicity was devoted, showed an increased level of violence and aggressiveness against unarmed citizens. Front page articles and tv reportages spread all around the world news of the effectiveness of such an "easy to use" weapon. Such a world-wide coverage possibly encourages terrorist and criminal groups to employ mass-murder weapons.
In this borderless world every day mass media and computers make every social, political and economic phenomenon no more geographically confined and of concern for all Countries and Governments. New trends both in the legal and the illegal activities are thus fully integrated and connected with one another, making the range of issues we have to cope with wider and wider.
In our evaluation of the phenomena which could affect the normal development of social life, we have to select priorities and try to prevent their negative influence on our economy and society.
Organised crime has already gone through a first-stage marked by a violent fight against the State, and is now acting within the legal framework. It is, by the way, pursuing the same illegal goals, but this new approach represents a real subversive threat to our democracy. This is the challenge we have to face and defy.
During the "terrorism years" the Red Brigades and other subversive organisations regarded the Italian State as the enemy to defeat. Criminal organisations such as The Mafia are at present behaving in the same way: they act as a "counterpower" with its laws, its Army, its political strategies opposed to those of our democratic Institutions.
A full control over the territory, over the economic and financial activities, and even over the ordinary life and ethical dimension of citizens are the main goals of The Mafia in the South of Italy. In this sense organised criminal groups represent a real subversive threat against the society and the State.
The Mafia's power relies on a wide range of activities, both legal and illegal. The national territory does not only represent the physical space where The Mafia wields its power, but also an important resource to be sacked and destroyed. Illegal property building, waste disposal, water supplying are only some of the activities in which The Mafia is engaged in these regions of our Country.
Usury and extortion are also part of The Mafia's policy of territory control. Extortion has always been considered as an acknowledgement of The Mafia's rule, while usury is becoming an useful way to take over legitimate business.
More importantly though, The Mafia shapes itself according to its own priorities and goals, trying to undermine the role of the State in an area and to replace Government institutions in a number of ways and occasions. Over the years, The Mafia partly succeeded in creating and spreading the image of an organisation able to provide employment and guarantee security to all citizens.
It is true that a significant part of Southern (and notably Sicilian) economy consists of organised crime-owned firms. This situation entails contradictions, because any intervention of the State against these firms or against The Mafia's estate will unavoidably imply cutting down production and jobs in depressed areas.
Considering The Mafia as an economic stabilising factor is probably the most dangerous result of the criminal contamination of economic resources, hampering the development of a collective social and civic consciousness to oppose The Mafia's presence in the area.
At present, The Mafia's money has a harmful influence over the local economy: The Mafia-controlled environment does not encourage productive investments and pushes healthy economy away, replacing business investors with individuals allegedly developing legitimate business, but in reality pursuing their own interests.
The Mafia-controlled areas are, in fact, burdened with higher rates of unemployment, illiteracy, corruption and illegal housebuilding. In a depressed environment, The Mafia seems to be the answer to all problems, and its attempts to compete with the State are highly dangerous and subversive.
This does not mean that the condition of subjugation imposed by The Mafia on the society is exclusively due to the fear of retaliation. Very often this condition implies several advantages (economic, political, and so on) .
It is, thus, important to prevent The Mafia from becoming a sort of political institution, with its own rules, territory, money and coercive means.

2. Criminal contamination of legal economy
Beside its "traditional" illegal activities, organised crime is at present taking new and very dangerous initiatives, whose targets are financial markets and legal economy.
In the last decade, the most important criminal groups, once organised as bands and acting on the fringe of society, have turned into powerful and wealthy holdings. Thanks to the enormous amount of money at their disposal, these holdings have become fully integrated in the financial circuit and able to influence the market.
At this moment in our Country there is a non-stop flow of illicit money, whose circulation through legal channels could deeply affect fair competition and free market rules and trends.
Till now organised crime's strategies were usually confined in local areas, due to historical and cultural reasons. Telecommunications and other media systems, however, have made data and information exchange far easier, removing geographic and cultural boundaries. So, important criminal groups have been offered a unique opportunity to broaden their range of action outside the territory where their activities had been traditionally carried out. That means also that in a near future some areas of Italy, so far "immune" from criminal contamination could be subjected to a wide criminal influence.
In the northern and central regions of our Country, firms and industries are now engaged in a hectic productive effort aimed at meeting export demands, while facing financial and credit needs. If "dirty" money continues to flood the market, criminal influence will further spread.
Not to mention the possibility that legitimate and illegitimate businesses become so mixed up that it won't be easy to distinguish between them.

Conclusions
Facing such an unpredictable and diversified threat, security and intelligence communities have to shape their counteractivity so as to undermine it.
Fighting the criminal threat implies first of all knowledge and understanding of the phenomena, that is to say an ability to foresee and interpret trends in social life. Security problems must be now tackled from a different point of view, bringing up together all helpful contributions so as to carry out an effective preventing activity.
In some southern regions of Italy the criminal range of activities is so widespread as to include, besides violent crimes, illegal housebuilding and tax evasion. Government's attempts to counter The Mafia-inspired crimes and illegittimate activities in this field, without ad hoc interventions and special provisions are bound to fail.
As regards, for example, weapons and drug trafficking, we must admit that investigation and prosecution of specific cases proved to have little impact on criminal activities as a whole.
On the contrary, precise and up to date policies, supported by law making - e.g. provisions to cut contacts between imprisoned "Mafiosi" and outside world , proved to be successful and effective.
In the fight against organised crime an important and fundamental role is to be played by intelligence services in their preventive function.
For this reason Italian Intelligence Services were called to join other law enforcement and security agencies in this fight.
Any future subversive development will be monitored by intelligence services through a constant analysis of gathered information and will be usefully employed by policy makers and other Government institutions, for whom a day by day update on new trends and phenomena is extremely important.
Covert operations, sources' acquisition and virtual "incursions" into the underworld are part of Intelligence Services' modus operandi which, as you know, differ from that of Police and Security agencies.
Police forces' task is to prevent and prosecute crimes and their engagement usually start on the crime scene, while our involvement starts well before the commitment of a crime and is mainly aimed at preventing it with the evaluation and/or forecasting devlopment of a phenomenon.
Intelligence Service's role becomes even more topical in the present situation as the legal and illegal world are often linked and intermingled, making the task more complex and difficult.
Without intelligence, State action against organised crime has the same chances of success as a pointing device without radar, as we face an enemy who instead knows perfectly well where and how to hit.