Agromafie. 4th Report on agro-food crimes in Italy 2016

Mafia and Camorra-type criminal association, conspiracy, fraud, extortion, illegal carrying of firearms, money laundering, use of money, goods or utilities of illegal origin, trademark counterfeiting, illegal competition with threats or violence and fraudulent transfer of valuables are the types of offences most frequently encountered by criminal organisations operating in the agro-food sector, with the Agromafie business exceeding EUR 16 billion in 2015. To achieve their objective, clans use all the traditional types of crime: usury, extortion rackets and illegal building, but also the theft of agricultural equipment and vehicles, cattle rustling, clandestine slaughter or damage to crops by cutting down entire plantations. Using the classic instruments of extortion and intimidation, they impose the sale of particular brands and specific products on shops, which sometimes, taking advantage of the economic crisis, they directly take over. Not only do they appropriate large branches of the agri-food industry and the profits that come from them, destroying competition and the free legal market and repressing honest entrepreneurs, but they also seriously compromise the quality and safety of products, which indirectly affects the image of Italian products and the value of the ‘Made in Italy’ brand. The pathological aspects of the agri-food supply chain, such as the increase in the price of fruit and vegetables by up to four times in the chain from producer to consumer, are the consequence not only of the effect of monopolies but also of distortions and speculation due to the infiltration of the criminal underworld into intermediary and transport activities.

Together with these aspects, the intensity of criminal associationism is high in the South of Italy, but it is also clearly visible how criminal influence is solid and stable in Central and Northern Italy. This is what emerges from the Index of Criminal Organisation (IOC) drawn up by Eurispes as part of the fourth Agromafie Report produced in collaboration with Coldiretti and the Observatory on Crime in Agriculture and the Agro-Food System, which is based on 29 specific indicators and represents the spread and intensity, in a given province, of the phenomenon of criminal association, given the inherent characteristics of the province itself and consequently of both reported criminal events and economic and social factors.