Law change would undermine confiscation of Mafia property

A BILL to come before the Italian parliament could foil one of the most effective anti-Mafia measures.

For years Mafia holdings have been confiscated and some of them converted for social purposes. The Neapolitan villa where the soccer player Diego Maradona was photographed celebrating with its drug-running owners during the 1980s is now an office providing help for victims of the underworld. A cement factory in Palermo, whose boss is an imprisoned Mafioso, is now owned by its workers.

Conversion of the Mafia's ill-gotten gains into successful enterprises has undermined the Mafia's claim that only it provides jobs.

The Government legislated for confiscation of Mafia property in 1982, following the Mafia assassination of General Alberto Della Chiesa, head of the investigation into the kidnapping and murder of the former prime minister Aldo Moro. Since then there have been 1081 confiscations in Sicily, 617 in Calabria, 544 in the Naples region, and 172 in Apulia in the heel of the Italian boot.