Revel Barker’s piece yesterday on The Times spoke of the reaction in Gozo to Totò Riina’s death in prison. It delved deeper in the psyche of a community that hosted him and welcomed him for the money he spent even as he was the capi di tutti i capi of one of the most violent organisations in human history that was not a state.

To pin this on Gozitans as some form of confirmation of the prejudice they are held in is superficial and slanderous.

Every day that we continue to profit from money laundering operations of criminal organisations who maim and kill and profit from violence and exploitation of vulnerable people, we share in the guilt of those who consciously ignored Totò Riina sipping coffee in St Francis Square, Victoria.

Every day we think of these criminals in terms of the hotel bills they pay, the cars that ferry them around and the lira they generate, we share in their guilt of profiting from the proceeds of crime, making us criminals as well. We refuse to think that that lira, like Totò Riina’s, is drawn from the blood of victims of crime.

And we refuse to assist in the frustrated fight that overseas authorities seek to battle at personal risk to journalists, honest politicians, policemen and prosecutors who hunt the mafia. Totò Riina moved around in Gozo like a local grandee without fear of consequence.

That was three decades ago. But even today, mafias continue to launder money here with the same impunity that Riina enjoyed for most of his life.

Take the case of Medialive Casino, that the Florentine police have named as a cave for the hiding of proceeds from crime. The Maltese regulator, confronted by specialist press, played the innocent until proven guilty card to defend the apparently complete lack of action by the Maltese authorities in spite of public calls by the Italian authorities.

Yes indeed we cannot presume guilt just because the Italian police say they suspect it. But there are powers at law in the hands of the regulator that give them the right, and the duty, to investigate the veracity of allegations and to act on the findings those investigations make.

Here’s regulator Joseph Cuschieri speaking yesterday to specialist journal GamblingCompliance: “Medialive is licensed in various EU member states (including Malta) to offer business to business gaming services to various gaming operators. The MGA is following the case at hand closely in view of the fact that the company has an MGA gaming licence,” said Cuschieri. “However, it is yet unclear whether there is a direct link between the MGA licence and the accusations being leveraged by the Italian authorities against this company, given their global links with other gaming jurisdictions,” he added. Cuschieri said that “the MGA has not been approached by any Italian authorities on this case being reported in the media. The MGA gaming licence has not been suspended to date. It would be premature to comment further at this stage until all the investigations are exhausted.”

This is the bullet-dodging speech of our institutions when they want to ignore the facts they are presented with. Whether the Florentine prosecutors actually rang Joseph Cuschieri’s phone or not is neither here nor there. They have spoken publicly on the record saying that Media Live Casino, in Malta — not elsewhere: they specified Malta — is part of an organised criminal money laundering ring.

Instead of complaining no one called him about it, Joseph Cuschieri should have immediately started a license inspection on Medialive Casino and ordered a systems audit into their affairs. He is in his power to do so even as Medialive Casino is, of course, presumed innocent until proven otherwise. Joseph Cuschieri is given those powers so that truly innocent businesses would not have their reputation besmirched by extension of the authorities’ endemic inaction in the face of suspected crimes.

Every day Totò Riina sipped his coffee in St Francis Square, Victoria, the policemen, the citizens, the government and the journalists who did everything they could to ignore his presence there became complicit in the crimes he perpetrated from the comfort of the protection he was getting. No one wants to confront this uncomfortable history. No one wants all those people shot in the back of their heads or blown up in car bombs on their conscience.

Instead, at least according to La Repubblica, people in Malta — a few at least who sent messages of condolence — remember Totò Riina for his humility and his generosity and the economic activity his presence generated.

Every day we continue to ignore the criminals in our midst, we share in the guilt of their crimes. But who wants to know that?