ABSTRACT
Over the last fifteen years, the Italian legislator has become more and more aware of the need for decisive action against the illicit economic activities of major criminal organizations. From the norm incriminating involvement in a mafia-type association (introduced in 1982 in the Penal Code) to the recent norms on money laundering; from the norms on the transparency of transactions and proprietary assets to the Law No. 501 of 8th August 1994 on the confiscation of illicitly derived assets, there has been a massive accumulation of norms, which have had little coordination, and which are difficult to sort out on a coherent basis. Nevertheless, the intensive legislative attention paid to the links between organized crime and money laundering makes the Italian experience one which merits particular study.
