The Federal Office of Police (Fedpol) says a lack of information and awareness from civilian authorities slows down the fight against the Italian crime syndicates in Switzerland.
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Fedpol director Nicoletta della Valle said it is key that labour inspectorates, trade unions and trade registers as well as bankruptcy offices inform the national authorities to allow them open investigations.
“It would make sense to amend the law and create an explicit right to report,” della Valle told the Neue Zürcher ZeitungExternal link newspaper on Tuesday.
She said the Mafia is particularly active in the construction industry and the restaurant sector in Switzerland and it controls the illegal trade in cocaine.
Della Valle also pointed out that Switzerland doesn’t have a central weapons register, which makes it easier for the Mafia to procure weapons in Switzerland and deliver them to Italy.
She said criminal organisations from Italy had started setting up bases in Switzerland more than 40 years ago. She estimates that there are currently several hundred Mafia members in the country.
All Mafia organisations are active in Switzerland, according to della Valle, but the ‘Ndrangheta syndicate from Calabria in southern Italy is considered the most dangerous, also because many of its members are integrated in Swiss society.
“Swiss German is the second language of the ‘Ndrangheta syndicate,” she quotes a federal prosecutor as saying.
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