Alas, most businessmen submit to the 'ndrangheta's extortion and others willingly exploit the local situation.

ECONOMIST: Doing business in a lawless part of Italy

The move came after some councillors were suspected of having ties to the powerful 'Ndrangheta crime syndicate.

BBC: Map of Italy with Reggio Calabria

The raids centre on the 'Ndrangheta crime network and its activities in tourism.

BBC: Northern Ireland man arrested in 'Ndrangheta raids

Experts say the 'Ndrangheta has overtaken the Sicilian Cosa Nostra mafia and become one of the world's biggest criminal organisations.

BBC: Map of Italy with Reggio Calabria

The 'ndrangheta, Calabria's home-bred Mafia, widely reckoned more deadly than Sicily's Cosa Nostra, is always clear when it sends a message.

ECONOMIST: Doing business in a lawless part of Italy

While the 'ndrangheta threatens, strikes and keeps business under siege, the state fails in its duty to guarantee the physical security that firms need.

ECONOMIST: Doing business in a lawless part of Italy

It is a fortress of the local organised-crime group, the 'Ndrangheta.

ECONOMIST: Immigration in Italy

For many months there had been concerns about the influence the 'Ndrangheta might be exerting over the city council, the BBC's Alan Johnston in Rome reports.

BBC: Map of Italy with Reggio Calabria

But Calabria remains firmly in the grip of the 'Ndrangheta, and Naples and its surrounding region of Campania are still in thrall to the Camorra (see article).

ECONOMIST: Southern Italy's ills

Investigators said the businessman from Alcamo, in western Sicily, had ''maintained constant relations with members of Cosa Nostra'' in Sicily, as well as having contacts with the 'Ndrangheta mafia in Calabria, on the Italian mainland.

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Inevitably, it lies in the 'ndrangheta's sights.

ECONOMIST: Doing business in a lawless part of Italy