Italian prosecutors and local officials confirmed that the Mafia gangs in Italy are seeking to take advantage of the Corona virus pandemic crisis to gain the loyalty of people by providing loans and food to poor families.
In an interview with Reuters, Federico Cafero de Rao, the national mafia attorney general, said that his team had detected suspicious activities in the city of Naples, including the distribution of “camura” gangs, free food aid to families in financial crisis due to the general isolation measures.
De Rao explained that his team possessed “evidence” but he did not elaborate, saying that investigations are ongoing.
The Italian prosecutor continued, “Camorra gangs know that this is the right time to invest.”
In turn, the employee of the Association “Ultra Latera” (“other Napoli”), Antonio Lucidi, said that this institution has collected more than 150,000 euros to deliver food to needy families so that these families do not accept gang gifts during the general isolation procedures.
“When hunger becomes a real problem, it is difficult to resist the temptation,” Lucidi told the agency.
For his part, the Italian lawyer, Amedeo Scaramella, stated: “We know that the so-called families of friends, all of them money-lenders, provide financial loans to people who face difficulties.”
He explained that the moneylenders initially offered loans with interest to compete with banks, then surrounded the borrower and raised the interest to 300 percent.
Previous experience indicates that gangsters may demand the return of Gemayel by requiring those receiving aid to carry out activities, including drug transport, and this practice is seen as a long-standing recruitment method.
Officials believe that public isolation measures have hurt the economic activities of the mafia gangs because they have limited their mobility.
In this context, the governor of the southern province of Apulia, Michael Emiliano, a former judge, said that “the collapse of the drug trade is causing them great harm.”
Source: Reuters
