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An offer they couldn't refuse?
Drugs-for-weapons trades between radical Muslims and the Mafia. From Reuters, with thanks to Nicolei:
ROME (Reuters) - Italian investigators have found a link between Islamic militant groups and the Camorra, one of Italy's main organized crime groups, a top anti-Mafia investigator said on Monday."We have evidence that groups of the Camorra are implicated in an exchange of weapons for drugs with terrorist groups," Pierluigi Vigna, Italy's national anti-mafia prosecutor, told reporters at the foreign press club.
Asked what kind of groups, he said: "Islamic terrorist groups."
Vigna, whose Rome-based office coordinates the work of magistrates investigating organized crime in Italy, said he could not give more details.
Pressed further, he suggested the cooperation came about after a member of the Camorra, the Naples-area version of the Sicilian Mafia, converted to Islam and met in prison with Muslims who had been arrested in Italy.
Security has been increased throughout Italy in recent weeks for fear of a possible attack by Islamic militants.
Precautions for this past Easter week were on a new scale after the March 11 train blasts that killed 191 people in Madrid and with the continued unrest in Iraq, where Italy has nearly 3,000 troops.
Former Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes said earlier this month suspects in the Madrid attacks had swapped drugs for around 440 lb of dynamite used in the attacks.
Two weeks ago, a top anti-terrorism investigator in Milan said militant Islamic cells scattered across Italy, many of them used to support attacks abroad, could turn their sights on targets inside the country.
Vigna said links between organized crime and militant groups were becoming common in many countries and warned they may intensify when the European Union enlarges to 25 countries next month.
He said European investigators and police had to be better coordinated and called for a European arrest warrant that would make it easier to apprehend people wanted in another country. Vigna also said an enlarged EU should have more joint investigations and more representatives of national police forces in other countries.
He also called for legislation to make it easier for a magistrate from one country to interrogate someone arrested in another or to seek trans-border confiscation of property and freezing of bank accounts.
Vigna said the four main organized crime groups in Italy -- the Mafia, the Camorra, the 'Ndrangheta and the Sacra Corona Unita -- take in some 100 billion euros ($120 billion) a year from illegal activities.
The most lucrative was drug trafficking, which netted the groups some 59 billion euros, followed by illegal business activities, extortion and loan sharking, prostitution and arms trafficking.
Posted by Robert at April 20, 2004 10:17 AM
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Being half Italian, I am ashamed of the Mafia. Damn them. I thought we could count on them to combat these Islamobumbs, but I guess I was incorrect in my assumption.
I am truly disappointed.
Posted by: DCWatson at April 20, 2004 10:33 AMDC, you are ashamed of the Mafia now? The Mafia are gangsters, bullies, extortioners, but with delusions of aristocracy. I'm amazed they haven't converted to islam already, they'd fit right in with the Saudis.
Or maybe they did years ago. Didn't I once hear of a guy called Al'Capone. Sounds suspiciously arab to me.
Alphonse Capone was not an Arab, peter. I'm fully aware of what the Mafia stands for. I was in hopes of fighting evil against evil, that's all. Mafia members are highly unlikely to convert to Islam. But thanks for your analogy.
Posted by: DCWatson at April 20, 2004 12:24 PMThe most significant piece of information in this article is the fact that Mafiosos are converting to Islam. This is not good. But I can understand their mentality. Thugs are the same all over the world, no matter their political affiliation or religious stripe. Don Corleone would probably approve, as long as he got his cut.
Posted by: epg at April 20, 2004 12:39 PMThe Mafia IS Islamic. It comes from Sicily which was occupied by Arab Muslims for several centuries.
"Protection" rackets are run along the same lines as jizyah. The code of Omerta is very much like the prohibition against speaking ill of Islam or speaking out against Islamic atrocities by other Muslims. The code of "the Family" is similar to that of the Islamic Ummah. Then there's the code of "honor" and vendetta -- too Arab/Islamic for words. And the misogyny of the Mafia as well.
The Mafia undoubtedly adopted many of its practices from the Islamic/Arab influence on Sicilian culture.
Too many similarities for it to be a coincidence.
Posted by: Susan at April 20, 2004 1:31 PMForgot the last similarity: once you are "made," the only way out of the Mafia is death (or the Witness Protection Program).
Posted by: Susan at April 20, 2004 1:32 PMHmm. . .So, a connection has been found between terrorists and the Mafia, but "They" couldn't find one between terrorists and Saddam. Hmmm.
In any case; so far, we have FOURTEEN "Dream Speakers" nominated for the "Dream Conference," and that's without overlap.
Keep them coming! I'll try to gather them up and post the nominees in a week or thereabouts!
Posted by: cubed at April 20, 2004 1:34 PMP.S. There were a couple of people who couldn't narrow the number down to three, and one who had two.
Posted by: cubed at April 20, 2004 1:35 PMI'm glad Susan pointed out the similarities between Islam and the Mafia. When first reading up on Islam, the first thing it reminded me of was the Mafia, exactly the same criminal gang mentality.
Posted by: Silvester at April 20, 2004 2:19 PM
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