The fight against organised crime in Italy has historically required a complex and multifaceted legal system. In this framework, the anti-mafia interdictions represent a paradigmatic example of hybrid legal tools. These preventive instruments ‒ qualified as administrative measures and issued by an administrative authority to protect the legal economy from mafia infiltration ‒ produce severe and stigmatizing effects similar to a “business life sentence”, due to their long-lasting and often irreversible impact on the affected business. The paper provides a critical examination of the main problematic aspects of anti-mafia interdictions: the vague criteria for their application, the wide discretion granted to the administrative authority (Prefect) in their application, and the limited procedural guarantees offered to entrepreneurs. It also calls for a reform of the current system, proposing that the application of such a severe measure should be entrusted to the judiciary and strictly limited to cases of proven and serious infiltration. It suggests accepting the interpretation of interdictions as an extrema ratio measure within a broader pyramidal system of administrative prevention, favouring less invasive tools where appropriate.