The mafia is taking advantage of the
COVID crisis to get into the Italian health sector and the green
economy, the anti-mafia investigative directorate (DIA) said
Wednesday.
"There are serious risks of infiltration, and money laundering
and corruption are growing," the DIA said in a new report.
The COVID pandemic is a "great opportunity" for Italy's mafias
and the speeding up of bidding procedures has brought "high
risks of mafia infiltration into the legal economy, especially
in the health sector," it said.
It is also "exceedingly likely" that the mafias - 'Ndrangheta,
Cosa Nostra, and Camorra - will try to intercept funding fro
major public works and the conversion to the green economy, it
said.
The three mafias have reined in their staples of drug
trafficking, extortion, and robberies during the pandemic and
upped activities of money laundering in northern and central
Italy, as well as vote buying and corruption in the south, the
report said.
'Ndrangheta, from Calabria, is Italy's richest and most powerful
mafia thanks to its control of the European cocaine trade.
Cosa Nostra is its older Sicilian cousin.
The Camorra is based in and around Naples but like the other two
syndicates operates all over Italy and abroad.
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