Italian Organized Crime Called `Dangerous, Pervasive'

Aug. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Organized-crime groups in Italy are a ``dangerous and pervasive'' priority of the security services, as Mafia-type groups from eastern Europe infiltrate the country's economy, the Italian spy agency said.

``Organized crime still represents a major threat,'' said a report published today in Rome by Cesis, the country's central spy agency. ``The web of corruption, intimidation, public mismanagement, violence and `omerta' -- which in all likelihood is behind the recent `garbage emergency' in Naples -- is but a part of a more threatening criminal globalization.'' Omerta is a code of silence.

Local officials in Naples and its suburbs are struggling to cope with months of uncollected garbage on the streets. Yesterday, the Sicilian Mafia burned to the ground a hardware and paint store that refused to pay extortion in the city of Palermo, and there have been a spate of murders in Sicily tied to an internal power struggle after Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano was captured last year.