International Journal on Criminology Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2014 | Page 30

International Journal on Criminology
For the author of the cable "Organized
crime has a corrupting influence on
all Bulgarian institutions, including the government,
parliament and judiciary. In an attempt
to maintain their influence regardless
of who is in power, OC [Organized Crime]
figures donate to all the major political parties.
As these figures have expanded into legitimate
businesses, they have attempted—with
some success—to buy their way into the corridors
of power. […] Below the level of the national
government and the leadership of the
major political parties, OC "owns" a number
of municipalities and individual members of
parliament. This direct participation in politics—as
opposed to bribery—is a relatively
new development for Bulgarian OC. At the
municipal level, a by-election earlier this year
in the town of […] resulted in the complete
takeover of the municipal government by figures
who have made little attempt to conceal
their links to powerful smuggling interests.
Similarly in the regional center of […], OC
figures control the municipal council and
the mayor's office. Nearly identical scenarios
have played out in half a dozen smaller
towns and villages across Bulgaria" 26 .
Italy
Crime and politics in Italy have been
extensively reported and studied. The aim
is not to remind us of well-known corruption
and influence cases but whether pacta
sceleris reached a level of national security
concern.
A key point, notably developed by
Umberto Santino, states that Italian mafias
are not always against the state since "they
are 'in' and 'with' the state as well" 27 through
the "mafia bourgeoisie". "Criminal groups, a
few thousand members in total, interact with
a much larger social group within which decision-making
power is exercised by illegal
actors [...] and by legal actors, professionals,
entrepreneurs, public servants, elected politicians
and officials in charge of institutions,
[forming] a mafia bourgeoisie" 28 .
Camorra (6,700), 'Ndrangheta
(6,000), Cosa Nostra (5,200), Sacra Corona
Unita (1,800), and Stidda (unknown), represent
roughly "only" 20,000 persons. Their
impact cannot be understood without this
necessary interaction with the "mafia bourgeoisie"
29 .
This interaction was illustrated
again in a recent police operation in Calabria,
the birthplace of the 'Ndrangheta. Arrest
warrants were issued against 65 people
in Lamezia Terme, in the area of Catanzaro;
among them, "entrepreneurs, politicians
and lawyers as well as doctors and staff of the
prison administration" 30 .
Criminal powers anchored in a territory
(mafias and cartels) possess an electoral
power (votes). In 2004, 190 “families”
were identified (approximately 5,200 members)
in Sicily, among which 89 were in the
province of Palermo (about 3,200 members)
31 . On average, each "man of honor"
controlling 40 to 50 votes, the electoral base
of the Cosa Nostra in the Palermo prov-
26
Idem.
27
Arles Arloff, "Italie, un pouvoir corrompu," Futuribles no. 381, January 2012.
28
Umberto Santino, La mafia interpretata Dilemmi, Stereotipi, paradigmi (Rubbettino editions, 1995), 250, p.
145 in Arles Arloff and André-Yves Portnoff, "La mafia italienne : persistances et résistance", Futuribles no.
326, January 2007, 32.
29
T. Cretin, Mafia(s), Op. cit., p. 21, 25, 31, 36, and 38–39.
30
Le Monde, "Italie: opérations anti-mafia d'ampleur menées à Rome et en Calabre", July 26, 2013.
31
T. Cretin, Mafia(s), Op. cit., 21.
28