Italian writer Saviano assails EU over mafia money-laundering

(PARIS) - Italian anti-mafia writer Robert Saviano accused European governments on Friday of doing little to combat the laundering of billions of euros in drug money from organised crime.

Italy's three main mafias pump 100 billion euros (126 billion dollars) per year in the European economy, Saviano told a conference in Paris organised by a French government drug-fighting initiative.

"How can Europe, France and Italy give up these investments?" he asked, given the dramatic impact such a measure would have on their economies.

The author, who has been living in hiding since his expose of the Naples mafia "Gomorrah" became a best-seller, singled out Britain as "one of the countries the least interested" in extricating itself from mafia money.

And he accused the Canadian city of Toronto of having "the highest rate of drug-trafficking capital" in the world, citing a report by the University of California at Berkeley.

"Europe has not responded firmly," to counter money laundering, said Saviano who decried the absence of a pan-European plan to block mafia funds.

Saviano has been living under 24-hour police protection after receiving repeated death threats from Naples' Camorra gang, the latest one saying that it wants to see him dead by Christmas.

"Gomorrah" has been turned into a widely-acclaimed film that won the top prize at the Cannes film festival and is in the running for the Oscar awards.