Protection Money

blackcard

I have heard anecdotally of businesses paying protection money with the threat of property being damaged if money is not handed over and garda being unable to prevent it happening. Is this widespread or does it only happen in big cities? What can be done about it?

ToddyDoody

The trick is to get the Eastern Europeans involved. Much cheaper.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Happened for decades to small rural businesses along the border.

touts

blackcard wrote: »

I have heard anecdotally of businesses paying protection money with the threat of property being damaged if money is not handed over and garda being unable to prevent it happening. Is this widespread or does it only happen in big cities?

A "security firm" run by two well known "ex-gangster" brothers in Limerick back in the 90s built their business on this. Pay them and you got an empty alarm box on your wall. Don't pay them and your business would have an unfortunate incident. They are gone now but I presume this still happens with other "reformed" individuals.

EmmetSpiceland

Now, is that “racketeering” or “extortion”?

corner of hells

blackcard wrote: »

I have heard anecdotally of businesses paying protection money with the threat of property being damaged if money is not handed over and garda being unable to prevent it happening. Is this widespread or does it only happen in big cities? What can be done about it?

You're a bit confused OP , protection money is what used to buy condoms.

Fan of Netflix

Jayla Late Sunlight wrote: »

Happened for decades to small rural businesses along the border.

Happened in Dublin in recent years, pubs, shops usually targeted.

DEFTLEFTHAND

touts wrote: »

A "security firm" run by two well known "ex-gangster" brothers in Limerick back in the 90s built their business on this. Pay them and you got an empty alarm box on your wall. Don't pay them and your business would have an unfortunate incident. They are gone now but I presume this still happens with other "reformed" individuals.

The State ended up awarding this family a security contract at one stage. Highly embarrassing.

s7ryf3925pivug

I heard it happens in Limerick, for restaurants in the city centre. One place refused to pay and kept having issues. Guess they are paying now.

Your Face

Nice thread you got here.

Shame if something bad happened to it.

Atlantic Dawn

I know of a few places where they were targetted by people trying to extort from them and then were basically left for dead by the business people they tried to rob from, never a report in any newspaper afterwards.

tricky D

Your Face wrote: »

Nice thread you got here.

Shame if something bad happened to it.

Does it put out fires?

Stovepipe

Chap I know well was in a well known cafe near Heuston Station, when a big, burly fella walks in and the cafe owner goes white and immeduiately hands him an envelope. Yer man sez nothing, just walks out. The cafe owner is sweating like a fire hose. Turns out the big guy is a well known member of a party with Republican affiliations and the envelope is "election donations".

Franz Von Peppercorn II

Do these rackets actual protect the businesses. Can you call them up if done other criminal breaks in and get them to “have a word”.

blackcard

Back in the day, the building company that I worked for had to pay protection money when we were working on site in Tallaght. We had got in security but their alsacian was poisoned and they were beaten up. There were supposed to be links to Sinn Fein before they became respectable

Atoms for Peace

Your Face wrote: »

Nice thread you got here.

Shame if something bad happened to it.

i always knew that the mods were cro.....

Upforthematch

THE toll of “pizzo” protection payments made by firms to Sicily’s Mafia is closely monitored. Nearly half pay up these days, according to estimates from the Confartigianato, a national business association—a big improvement from the early 1990s, when at least four-fifths of Sicilian firms paid it. Back then the levy claimed nearly a tenth of the turnover of victimised businesses. Today’s ratio is around half that. Other regions in Italy’s south, where the pizzo system is most entrenched, have also seen big drops.

For that businesses can thank a clutch of anti-pizzo groups. One is Addiopizzo (“goodbye, pizzo”) in Palermo, which advises businesses on pressing charges against crooks. It also encourages them to publicly forswear pizzo payments. Extortionists now think twice before bullying shopkeepers, knowing there will be a flurry of media attention and police investigations, says its founder, Daniele Marannano.

https://www.economist.com/business/2018/06/14/trends-in-extortion-payments-by-companies-to-italys-mafia

Must be fairly rare here - almost half still pay something similar in Sicily :0

DEFTLEFTHAND

Upforthematch wrote: »

https://www.economist.com/business/2018/06/14/trends-in-extortion-payments-by-companies-to-italys-mafia

Must be fairly rare here - almost half still pay something similar in Sicily :0

It's worse in Naples and Campania, they say you can't spend a euro in the city without indirectly giving to the Camorra. They've their hands in everything including the Council.

Calabria is bad too with N'drangneta.


The Italian State largely ignored these two groups during the 80s and 90s to focus on Sicily and Cosa Nostra. This allowed them to grow heavily in power and influence.

riffmongous

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtX2IToSuHY

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

Bulgaria too, Russian mafia with a foothold on the tourist resorts.

JohnnyFlash

There’s a TD in the Dail who used to collect protection money in the 80’s with his father for ‘the cause’.

mvl

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

It's worse in Naples and Campania, they say you can't spend a euro in the city without indirectly giving to the Camorra. They've their hands in everything including the Council.

Calabria is bad too with N'drangneta.


The Italian State largely ignored these two groups during the 80s and 90s to focus on Sicily and Cosa Nostra. This allowed them to grow heavily in power and influence.

and you're not talking about the tv series La Piovra/The Octopus, right - that's where I heard of these names together, think 20-25 years ago

Stovepipe

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy wrote: »

Bulgaria too, Russian mafia with a foothold on the tourist resorts.

In Bulgaria, they call them the "Thick necks", burly men in black leather jackets. Bulgaria's Communist economy collapsed in 1991 and it opened the gates wide for mafias and it solidified the already existing corruption under Communism. When places like Sunny Beach opened to mass tourism from the West, nothing happened until the mafia / local thugs got their cut. Things are more settled now but corruption is still rampant, just to get simple things done.