Extortion rackets have gone out of fashion and murders are largely frowned upon by the godfathers. Just 17 people were killed by the mob in Italy in 2022, according to the latest official data, versus more than 700 in 1991.

While there is no official estimate of the scale of organized crime’s involvement in financial crimes in Italy, two of the prosecutors estimated it was billions of euros each year

Instead, mobsters have moved aggressively into the low-risk, low-key world of white-collar crime, senior Italian prosecutors told Reuters. The shift to tax evasion and financial fraud is being fuelled by billions of euros sloshing around Italy in post-COVID recovery funds that were designed to boost the economy but are proving a boon for fraudsters.