The Mafia remains a subject of fascination around the world, depicted in books, films and TV series. But in his role as an undercover drug squad cop, Colin McLaren (bestselling author of JFK: The Smoking Gun) actually became a mafioso. After McLaren’s extraordinary three years undercover in the Mafia, gathering the evidence to shut down a cell of 20 criminals, and following death threats, he travelled to Italy - into the lion’s den - on an extraordinary mission in search of the very roots of the Mafia, seeking to understand its treacherous hold on criminal activity and the popular imagination.

This is the story of how the earliest Mafia aided politicians to invade Sicily, and how the mints and banks of Italy were looted and billions stolen. How ocean liners were used to smuggle Mafia into New York City, to establish the infamous Five Families. Aided by corruption, the earliest Godfathers conquered their territories on both sides of the Atlantic, reaching out like a slimy octopus. Since then, behind the distraction of global terrorism they have employed a labyrinth of commercial real estate, drug trafficking and investments to build their modern-day empire, estimated to be worth 400 billion Euros annually.

Mafioso also details the scourge of Mafia in Australia, as McLaren finds himself in the centre of it all, undercover, trying to solve a 1990s rampage of crime.