“Self-directed IRAs are becoming a more critical piece of property sales as an investment,” said Dennis Cisterna, chief revenue officer at Investability.

It quoted Alberto Cisterna, an Italian Mafia-hunter: “There is a massive number of their people in North America, especially in Canada and Toronto.”

“We have to register the evidence of what we’re seeing,” said Marta Cisterna, 45, the spokeswoman for one of the helmet groups, Human Rights Observers.