Pizzo

One of his non-professional actors, local press have reported, has since been arrested for trying to extract a "pizzo" - mafia tax - from businesses in the Caserte region to the north of Naples. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Mobsters use intimidation and violence to force shop keepers, restaurant owners and companies to pay more than £200m worth of 'pizzo' - Italian slang for protection money - every day. ❋ Unknown (2008)

Leaders from every political party were suddenly denouncing the Sicilian Mafia and its sister societies, saying that the mob's brazen thuggery-it routinely levies a "tax" called a pizzo on legitimate business people-threatens the stability and stature of their otherwise progressive nation. ❋ Unknown (2008)

The construction industry, in particular, is closely knit to organized crime, with many business leaders paying a "pizzo," or fee, equivalent to five per cent of their contracts, wrote Noël and Cédilot in their French-language book called Mafia Inc. ❋ Unknown (2010)

Macdougall testified that several Quebec entrepreneurs pay a "pizzo," essentially giving the Mafia important control of the construction industry. ❋ Unknown (2010)

He has been taken into police custody in Italy and has been accused of extortion for attempting to collect a Mafia tax, dubbed a "pizzo," from businesses. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Accepting to pay the "pizzo" can mean there is the understanding that you will buy from certain suppliers or offer jobs to certain candidates who are suggested to you, for example. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Though recent arrests reveal how the Mafia has been dramatically weakened in Palermo and beyond, the level of submission by businesses and shops in the city remains high, with an estimated 80% paying the "pizzo". ❋ Unknown (2009)

In Palermo, the regional capital, tour guide Eduardo Zaffuto, of campaign group Addiopizzo, offers anti-Mafia tours that include not only the sites that form the backdrop to the island's struggle with the Cosa Nostra but also promote the shops and businesses that have publicly declared their refusal to pay the ubiquitous protection money, or "pizzo". ❋ Unknown (2009)

But the 24-hour police escort is actually for the Conticellos, who in 2006 denounced the dons who had come to claim a "pizzo," the bribe the Mafia makes many Sicilian business owners cough up.

When Camorra punks turned up demanding "pizzo" (protection money), the organisers told them to get lost, and called in the police. ❋ Unknown (2008)

Rather than holding up shopkeepers for their monthly pizzo, they started "taxing" wholesale suppliers and taking over the distribution of goods. ❋ Unknown (2009)

The judge ruled that the payment of pizzo -- protection money -- had become so ingrained in southern Italian life that payment by businessmen and shopkeepers who were left no choice by the mob could not be considered a crime. ❋ Unknown (2008)

"This is a scandalous ruling," says Libero Grassi, a Sicilian textile-company owner whose testimony helped police jail local mafiosi who had demanded a pizzo from him. ❋ Unknown (2008)

What gave the anti-Mafia movement its initial boost was the murder nine months ago of Libero Grassi, a Palermo textile manufacturer who was shot for refusing to pay the pizzo. ❋ Unknown (2008)

And Sicuro just said no when the Mafia assessed her family's machine-tool business a pizzo of $166,000. ❋ Unknown (2008)