From Mafia property to school for $140M

BRUSSELS, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- The European Union and Italy plan to spend nearly $140 million to turn seized reputed Italian Mafia properties into schools and playgrounds, officials said.

The seven-year program seeks to fight alleged organized crime networks in the southern Italian regions of Calabria, Campania, Apulia and Sicily, European Commissioner for Regional Policy Pawel Samecki said at a news conference in Brussels.

Italian legislation lets state authorities seize assets from convicted mobsters and turn them into community projects, EUobserver reports. The legislation seeks to create an "anti-Mafia culture" and boost legal employment in reputed organized crime areas, the newspaper says.

Despite its intentions, the anti-Mafia initiative faces pressure and attempts from alleged criminal networks to hijack the programs, Lucio Guarino, head of Sicily's Development and Legality Association said.

"There is a real danger of Mafia penetration," with alleged Mafia operatives trying to hijack projects "from within," he said at the news conference.

To prevent this, proposed property developers will be closely scrutinized before getting contracts and will have tight financial controls afterward, Guarino said. At the same time, a proposed amendment to Italy's assets-seizure law was passed by the Italian Senate and is under review in the lower house.

If enacted, it would let assets be put up for auction if no social projects could be found for them -- raising the possibility alleged criminal society members could buy back their properties, Italian Liberal European Parliament member Luigi de Magistris told EUobserver.