Italy: wealthy mafiosi received citizenship income reserved for the poorest

Giuseppe Calafiore, an unemployed person, who came to apply for the new citizenship income, in a help center in Rome, on March 6, 2019 (illustration image). REUTERS / Gavin Jones

Text by: Anne Tréca

In southern Italy, more than a hundred mafiosi, members of the Ndranghetta, received 516,000 euros in citizenship income. A hundred bosses of the fearsome Calabrian mafia will have to repay this allowance established a year ago to help the underprivileged, announces the police of Reggio Calabria.

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From our correspondent in Rome,

Many of these system profiteers are well-known, wealthy figures, owners of villas and luxury cars, belonging to all clans in the region. Like for example Alessandro Pannunzi, the son of the "Italian Pablo Escobar", capable of importing into Italy up to two tonnes of cocaine per month.

Arrested in 2018, Alessandro Pannunzi escaped. It is still found on the list of 101 bosses and mafia colonels to which the administration pays a monthly citizenship income of nearly 800 euros.

It is not the first such sweep. A few months ago in another operation, the Guardia di Finanza had already identified 230 members of the Calabrian mafia among the beneficiaries of the largesse of the state.

To find the big fish, she compared the list of individuals in the region banned from voting following a criminal conviction with the names of the recipients of citizenship income.

Because to benefit from it it suffices to have little or no income and to certify on your honor that you have not been convicted by the courts. When filling out their requests, the mafiosi caught had blackouts. And it worked. In some cases, the investigators suspect, however, that there were indeed complicity of certain officials of the administration. The investigation continues.

► Read also: Coronavirus: in Italy, the mafia takes the opportunity to help the most disadvantaged

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