Attorney General: Swiss must step up fight against mafia

Stefan Blättler, as seen on April 6, 2022, at a cyber security event © Keystone / Anthony Anex

Swiss Attorney General Stefan Blättler has called for stronger action against the Italian mafia – which, as the Calabrian Ndrangheta, is suspected of operating in locations across the country.

“We have to move forward now,” Blättler said in an interview with the Schweiz am WochenendeExternal link newspaper on Saturday.

His comments came after a meeting with Italian anti-mafia prosecutor Giovanni Melillo in the Swiss capital Bern on Wednesday, in which the two men decided to establish a permanent exchange of information between the two countries’ judicial systems.

Blättler said the next goal in this cooperation was to open anti-Mafia proceedings in Switzerland. “If we open cases on both sides, these proceedings will be much easier to conduct,” he added.

The attorney general said that one of Switzerland’s great weaknesses was, however, that his federal agency had no national overview. “For example, I have no access to the Thurgau or St Gallen criminal police information system. We can’t get a picture of the situation in Switzerland!” he lamented.

Penalties ‘laughable’

Awareness of the problem with the mafia in Switzerland needed to grow “in all circles”, he continued. “It is in the interest of society and the economy in Switzerland that they are not infiltrated by mafia structures. It’s about the workplace, the financial centre, the Swiss economy,” said Blättler.

He added that there was also a need for legal action in certain areas, like Article 102 of the Criminal Code: the provision on the criminal liability of companies.

“Look at the sanctions: CHF5 million [$5.29 million]. That is laughable. That is now about a quarter of a second-level manager’s salary. They pay that out of petty cash,” he decried.

Blättler called for an instrument like the Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA), which is in operation in the English-speaking world, and is a voluntary alternative to adjudication.

In this way, companies could not simply be fined for an offence like money laundering, but also be monitored and accompanied while they made changes. “And our goal cannot be to dissolve a company. Our goal must be a clean company that creates jobs and pays taxes,” Blättler said.