Two famous restaurants in Rome shut down for suspected mafia links

Italian authorities on Thursday closed down two famous restaurants in the center of the capital city of Rome for suspected mafia links, local media said.

The restaurants, named "Er Faciolaro" and "La Rotonda," are located close to the ancient monument Pantheon and are very popular with tourists, Rome-based Il Messaggero newspaper said.

Both were allegedly controlled by a 47-year-old businessman, Salvatore Lania, from the southern region of Calabria, where the mafia organization 'Ndrangheta, considered the most powerful of Italy's criminal organizations, is based.

Lania, who was arrested in the operation, was suspected of "fake registration of asset ownership" and several of his relatives and employees were also reportedly being investigated, while assets worth some 10 million euros (10.6 million U.S. dollars) were seized as part of the operation.

Coldiretti, Italy's largest farming association, said in a statement on Thursday that at least 5,000 restaurants and bars in Italy are managed by mafia-style criminal organizations, based on a recent study the association, conducted in collaboration with Eurispes research agency.

"This latest case is the umpteenth evidence that the food industry is considered a strategic sector by criminal organizations," Roberto Moncalvo, president of Coldiretti, told Xinhua.

"Criminal organizations use the food industry to launder illegal assets deriving from their traditional activities such as drug trafficking, racket and usury," Moncalvo said.

According to the study, mafia-related business activity in the whole of the country's food industry generated a turnover of 15.4 billion euros (16.3 billion U.S. dollars) in 2014. The figure increased by as much as 10 percent last year compared to 2013.

Recent police operations, Moncalvo said, have shown that criminal organizations act like legal financial holdings in controlling Italian food companies, hotels, restaurants and commercial businesses.

Such a detailed management of the food industry not only damages the Italian economy and society by reinforcing criminal control of the territory, but also poses health threats to citizens, Moncalvo explained to Xinhua.

"Mafia-controlled food businesses can bring adulterated or expired products onto the market, as shown by previous investigations," he elaborated, calling for a strengthening of anti-mafia punishments in the food industry, one of the pillars of the Italian economy. Enditem