Guatemala, November 3, 2011. Recently, the Palermo anti-mafia prosecutor, Antonio Ingroia, visited Guatemala to present his book "Tools to fight organized crime", which highlights issues such as anti-mafia investigation tools, protected witnesses, cooperators, undercover agents and crimes related to organized crime.

Ingroia is part of the Palermo Anti-Mafia Directorate, which has conducted important investigations into the Sicilian mafia—Cosa Nostra—and the relationships between them and the world of politics and economics. Furthermore, studies have been conducted into international narcotics trafficking, human trafficking and international-scale money laundering.

"Organized crime is ever more advanced in Europe and Latin America; therefore, we need transnational bodies to combat this scourge and appropriate legislation in each country," he declared.

He also added that it is necessary to create an international tribunal that can try crimes committed by organized groups in the countries where they are operating.

He stressed that fighting the mafia in Italy has not been easy and the first efforts were undertaken by Italian judge Giovanni Falcone, who said: "The mafia is a historical phenomenon and therefore has a beginning and an end. However, Falcone died before seeing the end of those organizations," said Ingroia.

He recalled that at the end of the seventies and eighties, the Sicilian mafia had a global monopoly over heroin trafficking, and with all their riches, they could readily corrupt politicians, officials and businesspersons. Furthermore, this criminal organization declared war against anyone who opposed them, be they politicians, judges, prosecutors or police officers.

He described how, in the mid-nineties, there was a radical change in Italy given the new pledges of the authorities, civil society and politicians to develop a true anti-mafia policy. "Now, 20 years later, we can say that the mafia has been weakened."

Furthermore, the prosecutor stressed that in the case of Italy's fight against these groups, there have been significant achievements, such as the creation of autonomous and independent judiciaries, which guarantees the law is applied even to the most powerful individuals. Furthermore, tools have been implemented, such as wire-tapping, the use of effective cooperators and witness protection.

Among the recommendations that he highlighted to fight organized crime are the following:

-Sharing experiences among authorities of different countries, with the aim of learning from each other's knowledge and correcting errors in national systems;

-Coordinating actions between different States through information offices at the Police and Public Prosecutor’s Offices of each country;

-Having specially trained and well-paid individuals who can tackle criminal groups;

-Creating social movements to eradicate mafia through proposals to eliminate crime. Therefore, it is necessary that every country stimulates the dissemination of these civil groups to defeat international mafia.

Book Review
Aware of the difficulties and paradoxes that come with protected witnesses, cooperators, undercover agents and crimes linked organized crime, Eloísa Quintero—investigator of the National Institute of Criminal Science of Mexico—gathered a group of her academic and justice sector colleagues from around the globe to write about these topics.

The efforts of Quintero were supported by anti-mafia prosecutors Antonio Ingroia and Ottavio Sferlazza, who used the example of Italy as a starting point, and academics Gustavo Fondevila and Martín Barrón, who analyzed the Mexican fight against organized crime.