Organized Crime never sleeps

Criminal organizations are poised to capitalize on weaknesses in an economy ravaged by the coronavirus.

“The virus has demonstrated that it doesn’t respect frontiers, and the mafia has demonstrated that it doesn’t either,” said General Giuseppe Governale, head of Italy’s Anti-Mafia Investigative Directorate (DIA), an FBI-style multiforce agency. “It is like water, it moves wherever there is a gap.”

The mafia has a specific playbook for profiting from moments of crisis.

Italy’s crime syndicates, especially the ’Ndrangheta, which controls much of Europe’s lucrative cocaine trade, will be looking to offer liquidity to troubled companies in exchange for shares, said Maurizio De Lucia, the chief prosecutor in the Sicilian city of Messina.

“The mafia offers a loan to a business owner who needs money. He knows who he is dealing with but thinks he can manage the situation. He is mistaken,” said De Lucia, describing what he called “the method.”

The mafia typically then asks the business owner to hire someone, a favor the owner can hardly refuse. “This person then starts to give orders, changing products or arranging a renovation,” said De Lucia. “The owner protests, saying it is his company. But he is told, ‘Not anymore.’”

The owner is turned into a prestanome, or front man, for the mafia, which benefits from his relationship with the banks, and his books.

The mafia has already infiltrated the German economy and has a strong foothold in Spain, mainly in hotels and tourism, according to Pignedoli. There have also been infiltrations in France and Belgium.

Some criminal groups are also developing new activities to exploit the emergency, according to a report by Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency.

You can read the entire article here: Mafia plots post-coronavirus pounce

Source: Politico