The Guardian reports that an Italian soccer show, Quelli Che il Calcio (of course), has been used as a communications hub by the Mafia to communicate with the Men of Respect doing hard time in the chookie.

You know those shows where illiterate viewers text in with their cell phones, and the show scrolls the ramblings at the bottom of the screen?

You know, shows like Idols.

Anyhow, Italian mobsters have cottoned on to the fact that almost no one pays attention to those scrolling texts, including the police, and they’ve been sending in cryptic text messages to the show which look to all parties involved like the usual mix of banal and fanatical football fan messages.

Meanwhile, the Il Duce’s doing time inside prison merrily receive their daily mob communiqué during prison tm time.

Very smooth. That’s almost as good as the time that the mob released a series of instructional training videos for organised crime success. I think they called it “The Sopranos”, or something like that.

[Source : The Guardian]