The crackdown in Rome exposed just a small corner of what officials describe as a mob economy that has rapidly expanded across Europe. In an era of austerity, with Italy awash in debt and struggling to recover, organized crime groups are sitting on mountains of cash. They have taken advantage of the economic crisis to accelerate their infiltration of legitimate businesses outside their southern Italian strongholds and now control commercial interests in Rome and Milan, as well as in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland, Spain and beyond.

Read more: New York Times