From fish to bread to pastries, the underworld has made agri-food a strategic investment area, with a criminal industry worth more than 24.5 billion euros. This is what Coldiretti states about the operation of the Anti-Mafia Investigative Directorate to execute preventive measures against 26 individuals suspected of belonging to a local 'ndrangheta based in Rome and aiming to acquire the management and control of economic activity in the agri-food sector, ranging from fish to bakery to pastry. Crime incorporates the strategic nature of the industry during economic downturns since it enables it to permeate civil society and affect people's everyday lives. Not only do they seize vast sectors of agri-food and the profits that flow from them, destroying competition and the free legal market and stifling honest entrepreneurship, but they also seriously jeopardize product quality and safety, which has the unintended consequence of undermining the image of Italian products and the value of the Made in Italy brand.
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