Pay or this croc will eat you up

Italian police have revealed an enormous collection of animals confiscated from jailed or arrested mafia bosses.

The haul includes crocodiles, boa constrictors and an African grey parrot that was trained by its drug-dealing owner to say, "Adesso ti sparo", or "Now I'm going to shoot you".

When drug addicts rang the mobster's cellphone to place an order, the bird would squawk down the line: "How much do you need?"

Police raiding the home of a mafia boss near Caserta, a stronghold of the Camorra near Naples, found a crocodile that was kept on the terrace to "persuade" local businessmen and shop owners to pay "pizzo" - slang for protection money.

"Instead of bullets, the Camorra are using these animals," Marco Trapuzzano, an officer with the environmental police, Corpo Forestale, told Corriere della Sera newspaper this week.

"When business owners refused to pay, they would be brought to the house and told, 'Either you pay, or you'll become the crocodile's next meal'."

A clan of Camorra drug dealers used a large white python to protect its supplies of cocaine.

- ©The Daily Telegraph, London