Successive Italian governments have periodically carried out token public relations exercises in dealing with organised crime. 

A few more police patrols in problem areas, a token arrest here and there without actually getting to the root of the problem. But this will all have to change if new Prime Minister Mario Monti is to lift the country out of the current financial mess.

For the influence of criminal gangs in distorting the country's economic performance cannot be underestimated. 

The black economy is huge. Pietro Grasso, chief prosecutor of the National Anti-Mafia Bureau put the extent of the problem in context.

 

According to him it is in fact the country's biggest industry. Drug-trafficking alone is the second-biggest industry in Italy laundering €410m every day second in size only to oil.

The CIA says the mafia is one of the biggest businesses in Europe with an estimated turnover of Euro 170 billion. 

No wonder inward investment is among the lowest in the world anybody thinking of moving a business there knows who they are likely to be competing with. 

For it's not just drugs, extortion, arms dealing and prostitution they control. The four main groups; the Sicilian mafia, The Calabria mafia, the Puglia mafia and the Naples mafia are inextricably linked into the political system, the judiciary and legitimate business.

Bloomburg estimates the Mafia accounts for approximately 10% of Italy’s entire GDP or to put it in perspective twice the size of FIAT itself one of the biggest companies in the world and it is continuing to grow. The recession has been kind to the Cosa Nostra, the Camorra and the other families, their turnover has grown almost one third since 2007.

And it is hard pressed legitimate businesses that suffer from this expansion. 

According to a recent report by the small business and shopkeepers' association, Confesercenti the business model is simple. As bank lending dries up small businesses turn to the local mafia when they can't keep up with the high interest payments they go under only to reappear as mafia run concerns.  Since the start of the slowdown 165,000 businesses have gone bust allowing the mafia to step in being particularly active in construction and the hotel trade. On top of this it's estimated the mafia skims off around 6% of total GDP in extortion.

The issues facing Mr Monti are daunting: sluggish growth, illegal immigration, youth unemployment and spiralling national debt. But none are more pressing than tackling the power of the mob and it will take much more than just another toothless public relations push.