Report: Mafia big business in Italy

ROME, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- A report by a business group says the Mafia makes more money than any legal company in Italy.

Confesercenti, a small-business organization, estimated the Mafia's revenue at $126 billion a year from drugs, prostitution and extortion. Organized crime outpaces ENI, the oil company, by more than $10 billion and has revenues twice that of Fiat, the biggest Italian automaker, The Independent reported.

There are four major criminal organizations in Italy -- the Cosa Nostra in Sicily, the Sacra Corona Unita in Puglia, the Camorra in Naples and the 'Ndrangheta in Calabria. Confesercenti said all four are becoming more aggressive about demanding protection money from legitimate business owners, usually in areas where small family-owned enterprises are the rule.

By some estimates, as many as 80 percent of Sicilian business owners pay protection money, or pizzo.

Tano Grasso, who heads the country's anti-organized crime commission, said the Mob presence hurts the Italian south by scaring away foreign investors.