Coronavirus: in Italy, the Mafia takes the opportunity to help the most disadvantaged

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In Italy, the economic crisis linked to the coronavirus is also wreaking havoc: families struggling to feed themselves, to small and medium-sized businesses on the brink of bankruptcy. And the Minister of the Interior has sounded the alarm: watch out for organized crime which is already rushing into the breach.

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Packed lunches for families in difficulty, fresh money for businesses, the Mafia has come into action to benefit from the crisis. The Minister of the Interior warns: households must have access to credit and financial operations must be monitored. Companies on the verge of bankruptcy are indeed easy prey as explains the former antimafia magistrate Mario Vaudano: “ The problem is always liquidity and the company may have a great need for liquidity. And the mafia, especially Cosa nostra and Ndrangheta, the Calabrian and Sicilian mafias, have a huge amount of liquidity. "

Mafia money that competes directly with social assistance and business support programs set up by the Italian government. But be careful not to stigmatize Italy, continues the magistrate, who was also a member of the European anti-fraud office: " There is obviously always a danger, but it is not in Italy that he is the most risky. It is enough to see the mafia infiltration that there is now in Slovakia, Malta, Poland and also in Holland. These things must be said very clearly. "

European solidarity is at stake here too, organized crime knows no more borders than viruses.

This Friday, on the eve of Easter weekend, the prefects received an 8-page letter calling on them to do everything to prevent the mafia from thriving on the coronavirus epidemic.

► Read also: Coronavirus: Italy is looking for solutions to isolate the recovering patients

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