Abstract

The asset seizure and confiscation has become the main instrument of the Italian anti‐mafia policy. After almost thirty years it has led to the confiscation of a significant amount of highly valuable assets (cash, bonds, cars, boats, planes, lands, apartments and companies). When placed in the hands of the anti-mafia movement this enormous wealth can be transformed in common goods through experiences of social use. This is what happens in northern Campania, the fiefdom of the so-called Casalesi Clan. Here, a wide network of anti-mafia actors (civil organisations, public institutions, schools, cooperatives, entrepreneurs and citizens) has undertaken important initiatives, in particular in the organic agriculture sector based on the conversion of the assets confiscated from Camorra. The aim of this article is to highlight some of the dynamics of this conversion, starting from the analysis of the experiences of social use in the agricultural sector of seized and confiscated assets in Campania Region. We want to show how the eradication of the criminal economy is closely linked to the deconstruction of social capital and the ties outside of the mafias.