ROME, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Italians spend 19 billion euros (23.2 billion U.S. dollars) a year on "illegal goods and services", according to a CGIA think tank report on Saturday.
According to the research group based in the city of Mestre, near Venice, every year Italians spend 14.3 billion euros on drugs, 4 billion euros on prostitutes, and 600 million on cigarette smuggling.
The total figure equals "more than one percentage point of gross domestic product (GDP)", according to CGIA research coordinator, Paolo Zabeo.
These outlaw activities have added value of 17.1 billion euros to the illegal economy, which expanded by more than 4 percent over the past four years, according to the CGIA study.
The think tank also said reports of suspicious financial transactions to the Bank of Italy's Financial Information Unit (UIF) soared from about 21,000 in 2009 to just over 101,000 in 2016 -- a whopping 380 percent jump.
This is "indirect confirmation" of the economic clout of the racketeers that provide these illicit goods and services, according to CGIA.
The UIF's job is to investigate suspicious transactions for evidence of money laundering, tax evasion, or terrorist financing. If it finds such evidence, the matter gets turned over to police.
In 2016, suspicious transactions totalled 88 billion euros, down from 97 billion euros in the previous year, according to the CGIA report.
