Wanted: Old Fashioned Mobster for Online Racketeering

_{Chief Prosecutor of the Republic of Palermo, Maurizio De Lucia, during the press conference on anti-mafia blitz. (Image: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy)}

You could not make it up. It sounds like a spoof Mafia movie with Rick Moranis as the Godfather. The biggest woes facing the Cosa Nostra are that mobsters aren’t what they used to be. Capiche!  

It appears that the mob is struggling to find new recruits who are willing to ditch the mobile phones and social media in favour of good old-fashioned crime and extortion activities like online gambling rackets and dodgy unregulated casinos.

Imagine the scene at the recruitment day and subsequent induction days.  

OK, anyone willing to do some physical harm, step forward. Anyone in possession of a gun or knife this way, phones and tablets, thanks but no thanks.

Mob Struggling to Find Quality Criminals 

The Mafia are struggling to find recruits in order to keep the lira flowing in as a result of organised crime activities. With the changing world and mobsters switching to online crime, the old guard is feeling left behind and struggling to come to terms with modern mob speak and tools.

They don't produce mobsters like they used to, Giancarlo Romano told an associate in a wiretapped conversation before he was shot dead a year ago.

In late 2023, Giancarlo Romano was recorded complaining about the decline of the mob and poor quality of new recruits, "The level is low, today they arrest someone and if he becomes a turncoat, they arrest another... wretched low-level.”

He was overheard telling an aspiring mafioso to go to school, meet doctors and lawyers, and learn lessons from watching The Godfather trilogy of films about the fictional Corleone gangster family. 

Mafia Romanticised but Remains Real Threat in Italy 

Our own experiences of the Mafia may be romanticised by Al Pacino and Robert De Niro on celluloid but according to anti-mafia prosecutor Maurizio de Lucia, "Cosa Nostra is alive and present."

A BBC report states that investigators have revealed that the new generation of gang bosses have taken to using encrypted mobile phones and thousands of short-life micro-SIM cards smuggled into prisons. Their focus has been on drug crime, money-laundering and online casino gambling.

Of the 181 arrest warrants served on suspected Sicilian gangsters across four districts of the capital Palermo, 33 were for convicted figures already in jail. Of the 181 arrested, half were in their 20s and 30s. 

National anti-mafia prosecutor Giovanni Melillo questioned how the mob could still be controlled from behind bars. An inquiry revealed that one gangster had been able to watch a beating he had ordered from inside jail in real time via video link. 

Its Poor Internet, Not Poor Getaway Cars, Foiling the New-Gen Mob

According to reports, the Mafia became supremely confident about the encrypted messaging platform it was using, which featured text messages, voice notes and images.

That came to an abrupt halt a year ago when a bug installed in the home of one gangster recorded him and another man complaining about the connection going down on an encrypted chat. As they tried to restore the link, the names of several Mafia figures were mentioned out loud. 

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni praised the operation by Italy's Carabinieri military police and promised that the fight against the Mafia "has not and will not stop."