New software helps uncover Mafia crime masked as ordinary business
Suspicious patterns are revealed by crunching financial data
![The code breaks the silence](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/sites/default/files/images/print-edition/20180818_FNP001_0.jpg)
FOR an inkling of how hard it is for Italian authorities to identify Mafia activity, consider how mobsters disguise the pizzo, or protection payments, they extort. The owner of a business may find that customers have been scared off by a menacing stranger. Within days a mysterious man visits. He may request a regular donation for a poor family, or ask a business to switch to a new supplier. Owners put two and two together, says Daniele Marannano, an anti-Mafia activist in Palermo: “There’s no need for further explanations.”
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Seeking the devil in the details”
Finance & economics August 18th 2018
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