Italy will soon establish a new agency in the south of the country to better handle confiscated Mafia assets in a bid to intensify the fight against the Mafia, Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said on Tuesday.
The agency will be the core-part of a strategic anti-Mafia plan to be unveiled by the government when it convenes in the southern town of Reggio Calabria on Jan. 28, Ansa news service quoted Maroni as saying.
The plan will launch a coordinated effort against Italy's three main mafias: 'Ndrangheta in the Calabria region, Cosa Nostra in Sicily and Camorra around the Naples area.
The new agency's goal would be to sell off seized Mafia property by controlling auctions to make sure the goods did not return to the Mafia, Maroni explained.
"This agency will be a strong signal to the whole country" of the government's hard-line stand against the mob, the minister added.
One of the key points will be to speed up auctions so that the taxpayers do not need to pay for the upkeep of unused real estate for too long. The time between the confiscation of the properties and their conversion to socially useful ends will be shortened.
"This is the way to fight the Mafia: hit them in their pockets and turn their property over to social uses, especially for the young people", Maroni said.
Italy has a long anti-mob tradition. On Tuesday, the European Union (EU) Commissioner-designate for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmstrom said during a hearing at the European Parliament that the Italian scheme for seizing and using Mafia assets could be a model for the rest of Europe.
Many properties, farms and other assets confiscated from Italy's Mafia have been turned to public use in recent years. However, bureaucratic proceedings take a long time and in most cases many possessions remain frozen, unexploited, with a heavy burden on the state.
The battle against the 'Ndrangheta Mafia in Calabria has become the government's top priority after a failed bombing at a local courthouse and the outbreak of racial riots between immigrant workers and residents in the town of Rosarno.
An investigation has been launched to ascertain the Mafia responsibilities in triggering the unrest and in migrant labor exploitation.
'Ndrangheta, which means 'heroism' or virtue' in ancient Greek, has always lived in the shadow of more famous Cosa Nostra of Sicily and Camorra of Naples. But in recent years its power has been growing, and today it is considered the strongest and most dangerous of Italy's mafias.