1.   Back on their home turf, towns and villages are being beset with new vigor by extortion rackets and random violence.

2.   But who does it serve to make heroes out of people who ran extortion rackets and left a trail of blood through their own community?

3.   Mr Sangram says that is all very well but the biggest and most widespread extortion racket is operated by the schools themselves, against the parents not the children.

4.   North Korea seems to be running an international extortion racket, trying to trade in threatening weapons programs for food, cash and other forms of assistance.

5.   The proceeds in this extortion racket, investigators said, were considerable, but they could not specify an exact amount.

6.   The same applies to business owners who pay hundreds of dollars a week to gangs as part of a lucrative extortion racket, Masuda said.

7.   What we have here is a plain and simple extortion racket.

8.   Police believe it relies on ransom from its periodic kidnappings and extortion rackets to finance itself.

9.   Police suspect the men might have been involved in other extortion rackets in the area and are appealing to other victims of the scam to come forward.

10.   According to investigators, Reccia, while in hiding, ran extortion rackets of businesses in the Caserta area, ANSA said.