The Avviso Pubblico report: one local council a month dissolved due to mafia links
Public procurement, town planning, waste management, recruitment and land use control are the sectors most frequently targeted by organised crime infiltrators
Key points
- Geographical distribution
- The worst-affected local authorities
- The latest situation
- The political majorities in the dissolved local councils
- How mafia organisations infiltrate
- Lack of anti-Mafia checks
- Recruitment and office supervision
- Management of confiscated assets
- The administrative sectors most at risk
- The relationship between intimidation and dissolutions
- Stories of rebirth
Public procurement, town planning, waste management, recruitment and land use control. These are the sectors most frequently targeted by mafia infiltrators in municipalities and local authorities, and the ones they seek to influence the most. This phenomenon is so widespread that it has led to the dissolution of one local council a month due to ‘contamination’ by organised crime. These are the figures emerging from the dossier by Avviso Pubblico which, in collaboration with Istat, analyses the last 35 years. From 1991 to 2026, there have been 412 dissolutions. A particularly significant finding is the recurrence of dissolutions, demonstrating the difficulty, in some areas, of permanently severing ties between local authorities and organised crime: 1 local authority has been dissolved 5 times; 25 local authorities have been dissolved 3 times; 60 municipalities have been dissolved twice; 212 municipalities have been dissolved just once.
Geographical distribution
The phenomenon is heavily concentrated in the South, with Calabria coming bottom of the table (143), followed by: Campania (130), Sicily (97) and Puglia (26), other regions (16). Ninety per cent of the dissolutions therefore concern Calabria, Campania and Sicily. If Puglia is also included, the figure rises to 96 per cent. The provinces most affected are Reggio Calabria, Naples, Caserta and Palermo, which alone account for 55 per cent of the dissolutions.
The worst-affected local authorities
This phenomenon mainly affects small and medium-sized municipalities. 72 per cent of the dissolved municipalities had fewer than 20,000 inhabitants; 51 per cent had fewer than 10,000, and 34 per cent had fewer than 5,000. Only 9 per cent exceeded the 50,000-inhabitant threshold. The greater vulnerability of smaller municipalities is generally due to more limited administrative structures and a reduced capacity for oversight.
The latest situation
Over the last two years analysed, 10 local authorities were dissolved, spread across three regions: Campania (Castellammare di Stabia, Torre Annunziata, Pagani, Sarno, Arienzo); Sicily (Paternò, Mazzarrà Sant’Andrea, Francofonte); Calabria (Altomonte, Soriano Calabro). Campania has recorded the highest number of municipal dissolutions since 2012. Three municipalities (Castellammare di Stabia, Torre Annunziata and Soriano Calabro) were dissolved again in 2026, following a previous dissolution in 2022, demonstrating that the appointment of a commissioner, on its own, is not enough to bring about structural change and restore lasting conditions of legality and transparency.
The political majorities in the dissolved local councils
The infiltration was quite widespread. Of the 46 municipalities dissolved between 2022 and 2026, 29 were governed by civic lists (63 per cent); 9 by the centre-right (23 per cent) and 8 by the centre-left (17 per cent).
