The Mafia has moved on from drugs to wind energy

While it will not make as sexy a Hollywood movie as a movie about the Italian mafia moving cocaine and drugs through a sexy underworld full of women in tight dresses and men who carry guns, the mafia itself doesn’t care about image as much as it cares about money. So the 2010 version of the mafia has moved into what may be today’s most lucrative sector: wind energy. A report by the Telegraph UK recently investigated the mob’s ties to European, and particularly Italian, wind farms and found that the mafia is firmly entrenched in the clean energy sector.

According to the Telegraph, what first attracted the smart Mafiosos to the wind energy sector was the prospect of the massive grants designed to boost the use of alternative energy solutions. Now, the Eco Mafia (no, it doesn’t quite have that “powerful” ring to it) is skimming millions of euros from the Italian government and the EU. Particularly in Sicily, where, in mafia strongholds like Corleone exist and windmills clutter the horizon. 

In his interview with the Telegraph, Edoardo Zanchini, an environmental campaigner who has investigated the Mafia’s infiltration of the wind energy sector, said it simply: “Nothing earns more than a wind farm. Anything that creates wealth interests the Mafia.”  How do you do it? You simply build windmills that then stand unused or are just never actually built. And further research has shown that some wind farms are actually being used to launder money from other criminal activities.

There are currently about thirty wind farms in Sicily and another sixty are planned. Seem like a lot? But remember, the Mafia can easily buy politicians so the overage most likely goes unnoticed. Last year, detectives began a major investigation concerning reports that Mafia clans had colluded with corrupt businessmen and local politicians to construct wind turbines in the Trapani area of western Siciliy. In true European fashion, the sting was called Operation “Eolo”, named after Aeolus, the ancient Greek god of winds. Can you imagine a North American sting operation named after an ancient Greek god? Really, now. Regardless of the naming, eight people were arrested on charges of bribing officials with gifts of luxury cars and cash bribes ranging from thirty to seventy thousand euros.

And while you think that the eco-mafia may not make a sexy movie, this is the actual text of a phone call from an alleged Mafioso to his wife from the wire taps of Operation Eolo: “Not one turbine blade will be built in Mazara unless I agree to it.”

Frankly, that might be a great movie.

A second operation, called, and we’re not kidding you here, “Gone With the Wind” (enough with the puns already) led to the arrest of fifteen people on suspicion of trying to embezzle up to thirty million euros in EU funds. And though he has not been convicted of any offense and denies any involvement, one of those arrested was Oreste Vigorito, the president of Italy’s National Wind Energy Association.

Here’s what we think: aspiring screen writers should be working on a new Godfather series right now, except centered on the Eco-Mafia and wind energy. You’ll thank us when you win an Oscar.