Professional criminals will face a new crime of "participating" in an organised criminal gang, following the Government's acceptance of international anti-Mafia measures.
The Minister for Justice, Mr John O'Donoghue, is one of more than 100 ministers attending the conference in Palermo today.
The venue was chosen because of its associations with Italy's fight against the Mafia. The protocols of the ministerial conference on transnational organised crime establish the offence, shared by each signatory, of participating in an organised crime gang. It also introduces protocols for combating trafficking in people and the smuggling of women for prostitution.
The main provisions of the Convention criminalise participation in an organised criminal group, the laundering of proceeds of crime, corruption by public officials, and obstruction of justice.
The Government intends introducing a miscellaneous provisions bill next year that will include the anti-organised crime provisions. It will then become an offence to participate in transnational organised crime.
This could affect Irish criminals who buy drugs in other countries or who participate in drug trafficking or smuggling immigrants.
The Italian authorities took on gangs and their bosses in earnest eight years ago, when two highly respected anti-Mafia judges - Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino - were murdered.
Government sources pointed out that the Republic already has anti-organised crime legislation that is ahead of other countries.
The British Home Office has announced the appointment of a civil-police body which is very similar to the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB). Ms Kate Collins, Deputy Director General of the Organised and International Crime Directorate at the Home Office, has been appointed as the interim head of a National Confiscation Agency (NCA).
In last Wednesday's Queen's speech, the Government announced it would bring legislation before Parliament to provide for asset seizure. The Home Office has already announced a total of £54 million sterling over the next three years to set up the NCA.
Since the Government introduced the Proceeds of Crime Act, 1996, the Criminal Assets Bureau has frozen assets to the value of £13 million and demanded in excess of £32 million in tax.