In southern Italy, the Mafia was not just a collection of criminal groups. For more than a century, it built a system that offered protection in return for payment, brokered jobs, resolved disputes and controlled access to land, markets and public procurement. Where the state was intermittently present or perceived as foreign, the Mafia's power tried to look like a local order.
Cosa Nostra in Sicily, the Camorra in Campania and the 'Ndrangheta in Calabria took shape in different regions of the South. The fourth major organization - Sacra Corona Unita - appeared in Puglia in the early 1980s. They are not the same structure, but they use similar mechanisms: racketeering, smuggling, violence, political connections and control over the legal economy.
After unification, the state seeks intermediaries
After the creation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861, the new state had difficulty imposing its authority in many parts of southern Italy. Local landowners, intermediaries and armed groups gradually filled this gap. They gathered information, imposed decisions and ensured control over the territory, often linking themselves to local politics.
The explanation that the mafia is simply a product of poverty or a southern mentality does not stand up to historical facts. “The problem with the mafia does not stem from a supposedly specific mentality of southerners“, writes researcher Isaiah Sales. The key, he says, is the way in which political power integrates local power brokers rather than removing them.
In the 20th century, mafia control grew around ports, agriculture, construction and public procurement. After World War II, reconstruction and infrastructure projects generated huge financial flows. The mafia sought its share of these through threats, bribes and control over subcontractors.
Migration opens the way to the rich North
In the 1960s and 1970s, criminal organizations followed the migration routes of millions of southerners to Lombardy, Piedmont, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna. Initially, influence spread through extortion, illegal labor and the drug trade. Later, mafia groups discovered something more profitable than open racketeering – the opportunity to invest their illegal profits in legal companies.
The rich North offers what the South does not have on the same scale: developed manufacturing, construction, transport, tourism, banks and large markets. According to a study by the Bank of Italy, mafia organizations use front persons and fictitious transactions to bring illegal funds into the legal economy. In this way, the criminal power becomes the owner, creditor, employer and partner.
This also changes the face of the mafia. In the South, it is more often seen through violence and open control over the territory. In the North, penetration is more discreet - through companies, public procurement, construction, restaurants, waste and tourist services. In 2024, Italy's Mafia Investigation Directorate warned that criminal groups could no longer be seen as a southern phenomenon.
Parallel Italy leaves an economic bill
The scale of the impact is also evident in local government. Between 1991 and 2022, 267 municipal administrations were dissolved due to mafia infiltration, with 89 percent of the decisions in Campania, Calabria and Sicily. In southern Italy, the affected population reaches around 32.8 percent.
The price is paid in weaker competition, less investment and dependence on illegal intermediaries. A study published in 2024 in the American Economic Review found that after the dissolution of mafia-infiltrated municipal councils, employment, the number of companies and industrial property prices increased.
However, the mafia is not a thing of the past. According to an estimate by the Demoscopica institute, cited by ANSA, the penetration of the tourist economy brings organized crime around 3.3 billion euros per year. The “Ndrangheta is listed as the most profitable organization in the sector with around 1.65 billion euros.
Thus, “Mafia Italy“ is not a separate country, but a parallel system within the country. It starts in the South, exploits the weaknesses of poor areas, and then moves to where there is more capital. The difference between southern and northern Italy remains real, but the mafia has long been no longer just its southern symptom.
Sources: repubblica.it, ansa.it, apnews.com