Pino Arlacchi

He was born in Gioia Tauro, Calabria. In the early 1990s, he was involved in the foundation of the Direzione Investigativa Antimafia (DIA), a law-enforcement agency specially entrusted with fighting organized crime. Finally, he was appointed honorary president of the Giovanni Falcone foundation, named after noted magistrate Giovanni Falcone, who was also a close friend of his. == Academic career==

He has been associate professor of applied sociology at the University of Calabria and at the University of Florence. == Italian public service and anti-mafia work ==

In Italy, Arlacchi served as Senior Adviser to the Ministry of the Interior, where he established the Direzione Investigativa Antimafia (DIA). Arlacchi and Falcone are widely regarded as the principal architects of Italy’s modern anti-mafia strategy. Arlacchi survived an assassination attempt linked to his anti-mafia engagement, and was publicly threatened by Totò Riina, the supreme mafia boss, in 1994. As a consequence of this death threat, Pino Arlacchi has been under h24 protection by two armored cars with 7 guards for 13 years, until is UN appointment, when the task of its protection have been assumed by the UN Blue Helmets. == Political career==

In 1994–1996 he was a member of the lower chamber of the Italian parliament and, between 1996–1997, of the Senate. During this period, he was appointed vice-president of the Antimafia Commission, a bicameral commission of the Italian Parliament to which he had already collaborated as consultant between 1984 and 1986. From 2009 to 2014 he was a Member of the European Parliament for Southern Italy: initially with the Italy of Values (ALDE), In 2010 he was rapporteur for the European Parliament report A new strategy for Afghanistan which flagged the risks related to very high levels of corruption in the management of international aid funds within the context of the war in Afghanistan to the increase of opium production. == United Nations activities ==

As soon as he was appointed director of UNDCP he started a worldwide campaign against drugs, the so-called "A Drug Free World". In 1998, Arlacchi received international attention following the unanimous approval of a new global drug-control strategy at a special session of the United Nations General Assembly. A review of the Arlacchi plan has been carried out in March 2009 by the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs. The most important result achieved by Arlacchi during his activity at the UN was the promotion of a UN convention against all the forms of organized criminality, that has been held in Palermo in 2000. The document of this convention came into effect in 2003. During his tenure in Vienna, Arlacchi’s work received international recognition. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan publicly praised his contributions in several speeches, and former U.S. President Bill Clinton sent a letter to Annan expressing support for Arlacchi’s leadership. Contemporary media coverage also highlighted his role, with The Financial Times reportedly comparing his tenure to that of conductor Herbert von Karajan. During this period, anonymous allegations led to an internal investigation, which concluded with Arlacchi’s full exoneration. He subsequently completed his mandate without further institutional or disciplinary issues. == Caviar diplomacy ==

As Head of the European Parliament's monitoring team, Pino Arlacchi certified that the elections in Azerbaijan on 9 October 2013 were "free, fair and transparent". Observers from the OSCE / ODIHR, led by Italian politician Tana de Zulueta, spoke of restrictions on freedom of speech during elections. On October 11, the representative of the European Union, Catherine Ashton and European Commissioner Stefan Fule, ignored the assessment of the European Parliament, including in its statement the results of the ODIHR. It later emerged that a number of EU representatives traveled to Azerbaijan unofficially and on the dime of Azerbaijani organizations, which was regarded by European Voice as "stupidity or corruption", these trips were labeled "electoral tourism". Arlacchi dismissed the criticism as uncivilized and fictitious and replied that his assessment of the Azerbaijani presidential elections was not personal but reflected that of sixty-five other parliamentarians belonging to three different delegations (OSCE, EP, Council of Europe), and of over one thousand observers from another 46 delegations present on site and from all over the world. == Other works ==

Arlacchi has served as an adviser to governments and international organizations on security and crime prevention. == Awards and honors ==

He is the recipient of “El Cóndor de los Andes – Grand Cross”, Bolivia’s highest national honor, awarded in 2000 in recognition of his contribution to reducing narcotics production through alternative development strategies. == Personal life ==

Pino Arlacchi lives in Rome, Italy. He has maintained long-standing public recognition in Italy and was included in 1986, at the age of 35, in a national list of “A Thousand Italians Who Count.” Outside academia and politics, he is an avid sailor and crossed the Atlantic Ocean five times between 1999 and 2019. == Selected bibliography ==

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