By Stephen Baker, senior partner at Baker & Partners

The old conundrum about whether art imitates life or life imitates art may have no ultimate answer, but sometimes life hands us a set of facts which we would expect to see only in the pages of a novel or on the Hollywood screen. A bond issue bought by reputable investors world-wide and backed by the Mafia would qualify.

The 'Ndrangheta is in effect the Calabrian Mafia, a fragmented but organized crime syndicate with centuries’ deep roots. Its current power is patent given that it reputedly has a stranglehold on the European illegal trade in cocaine.