Mob Rule: How Sicilian Mafiosi Make a Killing From Italy’s Wind & Solar Industries

If the mob are in on it, you can be sure there’s a fast and easy buck to be made, which is why Sicily’s Cosa Nostra long-ago infiltrated Italy’s wind and solar industries. No doubt, providing added valuable protection, wherever it’s needed; no doubt ensuring premium prices for an inferior product. You know, the kind of offer you just can’t refuse?

A decade ago, Matteo Messina Denaro – then the undisputed head of the Cosa Nostra – was targeted by Italian police, which seized €3.5 million in assets including bank accounts in Sicily and Lombardy; and snaffled a further €1.3 billion belonging to his associate, wind-farm and solar-power magnate Vito Nicastri. Denaro and Nicastri ran a web of companies between them, many with direct ownership of large-scale wind and solar operations.

Although he may have been rattled by that financial raid back in 2013, Denaro wasn’t about to lie down; he was involved in plans to kill the prosecutors and informants within the ranks who threatened his liberty and lavish lifestyle.

Denaro remained at large until a few weeks ago, when the Carabinieri finally collared him, presumably this time for keeps.

But, you can’t keep a good mobster down, not for long, anyway, with the new blood determined to pour even more effort and (ill-gotten) cash into Italy’s wind and solar scam.

Mafia goes green
Daily Star
Brendan McFadden
20 January 2023

The Sicilian Mafia reckons it can recover from losing its Godfather by going green.

Newly-promoted Dons are turning to environmentally-friendly schemes to make dough for their organised crime empire.

Cops say despite the arrest of Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, 60, this week, the battle against Cosa Nostra is not over because it is earning billions of euros each year creating solar and wind farms.

They are investing in renewable energy to make cash alongside their more traditional interests in construction and waste disposal.

Top cop Antonello Parasiliti Molica said: “There is still a huge amount to do. While Denaro’s capture marks the end of an era, the Mafia has been reorganising for some time.

“There are now less deaths but more underground activity and more money laundering.”

Investigators previously found links between Sicily’s Mafia and wind farms in Italy – a country where wind energy sells for a higher price than anywhere in the world.

Investments in Italy’s green industries more than quadrupled from 2005 to 2017 and most of its 900,000 green energy generating systems are solar power plants. Denaro, dubbed the last “godfather”, once bragged he could “fill a cemetery” with his victims.

The Sicilian mafia plans to come back stronger after their Godfather was caught by turning green.

Mess with them and you’ll be sleeping with the sustainably sourced fishes!
Daily Star