Italian Mob Bosses Get Coded Text Messages on TV

Mafia clans have used a popular football show on Italian television to send secret messages to jailed godfathers held in isolation, a magistrate has revealed.

Imprisoned crime bosses were kept up to date on mob business through mobile phone texts sent to the show, Quelli Che il Calcio, loosely translated as Those Who Play Football. The producers unwittingly scrolled them across the bottom of the screen, among innocent messages from supporters of Italian football teams.

Enzo Macri,a magistrate tipped off after a letter advising a jailed boss to watch the show was intercepted, cited one of the texts, "Everything is OK – Paolo," as being sent by a clan affiliate.

Italian senator,Carlo Vizzini demanded to know why mafia inmates were allowed to watch the show  "I do not understand why people held under such conditions can watch programs in which the TV audience can participate," he said.

Program presenter Simona Ventura, said the show's producers had been unaware of the ruse and would stop airing texts immediately. "The show has always had universal appeal, from the young, to graduates, to the old, and now, I discover, mob bosses and their families too," she said.

Source: The Guardian

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Tags: 'Ndrangheta, Camorra, Cosa Nostra, Italy, Organized Crime, Sacra Corona Unita