Mafioso. Colin McLaren. 2022.

The Mafia remains a subject of fascination around the world, depicted in books, films and TV series. But how close are these to reality? In his role as an undercover drug squad cop, Colin McLaren actually became a mafioso. After McLaren’s extraordinary three years undercover in the Mafia in Australia, gathering the evidence to shut down a cell of 20 criminals, he travelled to Italy on a mission in search of the very roots of the Mafia, seeking to understand its treacherous hold on criminal activity and the popular imagination.

This is the story of how the earliest Mafia aided politicians to invade Sicily, and how the mints and banks of Italy were looted and billions stolen. How ocean liners were used to smuggle Mafia into New York City, to establish the infamous ‘five families’. Aided by corruption, the earliest Godfathers conquered their territories on both sides of the Atlantic. Since then, behind the distraction of global terrorism they have employed a la yrinth of commercial real estate, drug trafficking and investments to build their modern-day empires.