Jailed Mafia bosses sent messages via TV show

The Italian TV presenter Simona Ventura has insisted that she and her producers were unaware that the Mafia were using their top-rated football show, Quelli Che il Calcio, to send secret messages to jailed mob bosses.
 
It has emerged that imprisoned mobsters were able to keep up with their crime empires in the outside world by watching the Sunday afternoon Rai 2 show.
 
Every week mobile phone texts are sent into the show and then scrolled across the bottom of the screen. What Ventura and her producers didn't know was that, in amongst the innocent comments from football fans, were covert messages from mafiosi for some 600 Mafia bosses being held in isolation in maximum security jails across Italy.
 
According to prosecutor Vincenzo Macri, SMS messages about murders of rival clan members or informers were sent into the show, coded as "happy events in the family".
 
Macri said: "The texts appear to be from one football fan to another, messages of friendship. Take the message 'Ciao Franco, the journey went well'. This refers to the safe arrival of a drugs shipment."
 
Another simple message, ‘Paolo, all is in order’, meant that a task given to a gang member had been carried out, the prosecutor added.
 
The scheme came to light after a letter telling a jailed mobster to tune into Quelli Che il Calcio - which roughly translates as ‘the Football Crowd’ - was intercepted by a prison warden.
 
Ventura (pictured), the former showgirl who has presented the programme since 2001, said that Quelli Che il Calcio would stop running texts on its screen ticker when it returns in mid-September. She told La Repubblica: "It strikes me as pretty ingenious. We opened up a line of communication with our viewers in order to give them direct contact with the show.”

The Mafia revelation proved the show had "universal appeal", she said. Viewers ranged from "the young, to graduates, to the old, and now, I discover, mob bosses and their families, too." ·