Fighting Criminal Organizations Inside a Public Body: Experience from the Field

Part of the history of the Italian Republic is marked by the struggle against the structured criminal organizations known as the "Mafia". Until the end of the 90s, the Mafia showed their control of activity on the territory through acts of intimidation and often sensational criminal actions, such as the attacks that led to the deaths of the judges Giovanni Falcone and Salvatore Borsellino. Since the end of the 90s, criminal organizations have embarked on a path of mutation of their modus operandi, preferring to act in the shadows to the "striking act". The surveillance and control of the territory carried out by the Anti-Mafia Investigative Directorate (DIA) appointed as the government agency in charge of combating organized criminal organizations, has revealed that in recent years the activities of organized crime have concentrated on "infiltrations" within local authorities to direct their planning objectives and condition public spending. This work will show the enormous effort perpetrated by the managers of the municipality of Ostuni, a well-known tourist location in the Province of Brindisi (Puglia Region) known throughout Italy as the "White City", commissioner for "criminal infiltration of mafia-type"