Justice Minister Andrea
Orlando told a mafia conference Friday that crimes linked to the
mafia such as corruption and money laundering must be
spotlighted by prosecutors.
"It's not just a question of following a saga of succession,"
he said, referring to expected struggles to succeed the late
boss of bosses Totò Riina.
Corleone-born 'The Beast' Riina, 87, responsible for the
murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo
Borsellino as well as many others, died a week ago aged 87.
"What we need is change of perspective," Orlando went on,
"you have to look at those tell-tale crimes that open the doors
to a mafia phenomenon and which often have a much greater
economic and social impact".
He said prosecutors had been attempting to do this, shifting
focus from all-out mafia crimes to other offences including
"corruption, false accounting, vote buying, environmental crimes
and crimes against the public administration, as well as
gangmastering".
The fight against the mafia, Orlando stressed, should also be
based on "social development".
The links between organised crime and the economy, he said,
were "clear".
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