So the Italian authorities have seized billions of euros from the mafia, and Britain, ever the eager beaver, wants to tighten cross-border asset recovery. How delightfully hypocritical. One must applaud the Italian state’s efficiency in confiscating laundered wealth, but let us not pretend this is a triumph of justice.
It is merely a bureaucratic version of the same racketeering the mafia perfected: taking what belongs to others under the guise of order. The real question is why this merits a headline now. Because the mafia’s billions have been allowed to accumulate for decades, sheltered by the same banking systems that now preen about cooperation.
The City of London, that great sinkhole of dubious finance, has long been a haven for such capital. Britain’s push for tougher laws is less about morality and more about rebranding its own predatory instincts. We are witnessing the state’s final conquest of the underworld: not defeating crime, but absorbing it.
The mafia will simply move to other assets: art, cryptocurrency, shell companies in the Caymans. The seizure is a theatrical gesture, a reminder that the state’s monopoly on theft is absolute. Meanwhile, the real criminals, those who design the tax loopholes and bail out banks, remain untouched.
History repeats: the Roman Republic fell when the state began confiscating private fortunes to fund its legions. Today it is to fund deficits. We are not at the end of crime; we are at the beginning of state-sanctioned larceny.
