Italy to crack down on cybercrime as mafia use cryptocurrency for illegal deals
- Organised crime groups are increasingly using cryptocurrencies to help disguise illicit transactions and spend funds anonymously
- By turning money raised illegally into cryptocurrency and then using it in illegal parts of the internet, like the dark web, the mafia can also launder money without attracting notice
Digital currencies are increasingly being used by mafia in Italy, as organised groups eye conducting financial operations on a platform with no financial regulators or government guidelines.
Cryptocurrencies are purely digital, meaning there’s no bill or coin to be held. Instead, the money is made up of cryptological codes of numbers and letters.
They are generally decentralised, with transactions taking place directly between users. Users employ something called a blockchain, a complex kind of database, to make sure that currencies are not duplicated.
Transactions with digital currencies are fast and offer security as well as a kind of anonymity, as it is hard to track any traders – making an environment that appeals to illegal businesses, said an official with the DIA, Italy’s anti-mafia police, in an interview with dpa. He asked that his name not be used for safety reasons.
“All criminal organisations, even those like the mafia, have an interest in using these instruments for their business,” the official said.
Police tend not to reveal data about trade volumes, investigations or damages linked to any illegal business.
For example, the ’Ndrangheta Mafia, based in Calabria in southern Italy, use cryptocurrencies for trade with Latin American cartels, according to the most recent DIA report to lawmakers, focused on the first half of 2020.
The ’Ndrangheta focuses primarily on the cocaine trade and has made use of digital money to ease transactions with Colombian cartels.