Italians say "basta" to Mafia squeeze on business

By Stephen Brown

ROME (Reuters) - When the Sicilian Mafia first tried to shake down restaurateur Vincenzo Conticello for 500 euros ($716 US) a month, he quoted his grandmother Ermelinda at them: "Don't start paying up or you will always be a servant, never a free man."

Unconvinced by his late granny's reason for not paying the "pizzo" -- protection money paid all over southern Italy and by up to eight out of 10 businesses in parts of Sicily -- the Mafia hit back with death threats and a new demand for 50,000 euros ($70,000).

A member of the fifth generation of Conticellos to run Palermo's Antica Focacceria San Francesco, the 48-year-old stood up in court and pointed the finger at the men he said tried to force him to pay up.

"If I had paid up, my grandmother would have turned in her grave," said Conticello, one of a tiny band of business people who, partly inspired by anti-racket youth movements such as "www.addiopizzo.org" ("goodbye pizzo"), have taken a stand.

They cannot even dent the mob's earnings. It is estimated that Italian crime syndicates -- the Cosa Nostra, the Camorra in Naples and the 'Ndrangheta in Calabria -- earn 75 billion euros a year from the protection racket and loan sharking.

But they hope to inspire others and eventually deprive the mob of an easy and low-risk source of cash.

"If the Mafia exists, it exists because businesses pay up," said Tano Grasso, who set up the first anti-racket group in 1990 after refusing to pay protection money for his clothing firm.

Some pay a high price for refusing to pay, none more so than Palermo merchant Libero Grassi, who was shot dead in 1991.