Italy’s mafia is increasingly setting its operational sights on places with strong economic growth and where legislation is weak and can be exploited. And Malta is one such place that was singled out yesterday by the Director of Italy’s Direzione Investigativa Antimafia [Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate] General Giuseppe Governale.

Speaking yesterday morning in Rome, Governale explained how, “The mafia has always had a grand vision and it has always carried out its cost-benefit analyses.  In short, it goes where gross domestic product is growing and where anti-mafia legislation is reduced or less effective.

“Our investigations into the gaming sector suggest that there is a connection between our mafia and big interests in Malta.”

According to Governale, "The Mafia infiltrates the [gaming] sector by exploiting the flaws in the law."  He was speaking at an event yesterday on the topic of ‘Public gaming and dependencies in Lazio’.

“The mafia is moving along two lines,” Governale said yesterday. “In legal gaming - through extortion or tampering with devices - and in the illegal circuit, producing an alternative network and exploiting cumbersome state or territorial regulations."

"We need to make people, especially the younger ones, aware of the risks of illegal gambling, we need careful legislation and police forces that have the skills to intercept this kind of business.

“We have had some positive signs lately as far as Suspicious Transaction Reports are concerned and those concerning gaming operators this year have doubled.”

The DIA is an Italian multi-force investigation body under the Department of Public Security of the Ministry of the Interior with the main aim of fighting mafia-related organised crime in Italy.

Links between Malta’s online gaming sector and the mafia clans have been investigated and prosecuted for years now, particularly as regards the operations of the ‘Ndrangheta clan from Calabria, one of Italy’s most powerful crime syndicates.  Several arrests and extraditions from Malta have been made but the DIR apparently still has its eyes fixed firmly on the Malta connection.

The Maltese Police have also investigating links between Malta’s online gaming sector and the Calabria mafia. While the Maltese police had previously acted upon a European Arrest Warrant issued by the Italian authorities, the force has also carried out its own local investigations.