The Italian mafia has been providing food and essential goods to quarantined families hardest hit by the coronavirus lockdowns – all the people living in the poorest southern regions of Calabria, Campania, Puglia, and Sicily who have run out of cash. And though this may sound like a lovely thing, authorities warn that these organized crime groups are only offering support to be able to impose control over the peoples’ lives.
Nicola Gratteri, an anti-mafia investigator, told The Guardian:
For over a month, shops, cafés, restaurants, and pubs have been closed. Millions of people work in the grey economy, which means that they haven’t received any income in more than a month and have no idea when they might return to work. The government is issuing so-called shopping vouchers to support people. If the state doesn’t step in soon to help these families, the mafia will provide its services, imposing its control over people’s lives.
This technique is how the mafia gains local support. And now is a natural time to execute since an estimated 3.3 million people (1 million of them in the south) in Italy work off the books – meaning they haven’t been receiving money since everything has shutdown. These are the most recent figures coming from CGIA Mestre, a Venice-based small business association.
The situation has gotten to the point that supermarkets have to be patrolled by police to stop the theft of everyday items. Meanwhile, in Sicily, people are protesting outside of banks in Bari for a measly €50 (£44) loan to buy food.
Luciana Lamorgese, the Italian minister of the interior, saw the potential threat of the mafia from the first signals of mounting social unrest. She said:
The mafia could take advantage of the rising poverty, swooping in to recruit people to its organization.
As it turns out, they are taking advantage – but by simply stepping in to hand out free food parcels, water, pasta, flour, and milk.
Federico Varese, a University of Oxford professor of criminology, said:
Mafias are not just criminal organizations. They are organizations that aspire to govern territories and markets. Commentators often focus on the financial aspect of mafias but they tend to forget that their strength comes from having a local base from which to operate.
It is an age-old trick of any mafia to initially present itself as benefactors and local power brokers without asking for anything in return.
Gratteri said:
Consider what happened to El Chapo, the Mexican narco. He trafficked tons of cocaine and commissioned the murder of hundreds of people but in his hometown, he was known for his benevolence, because people said that he provided medicines to families or built roads. The same thing happens here.
[Italian] Mafia bosses consider their cities as their own fiefdom. The bosses know very well that in order to govern, they need to take care of the people in their territory. And they do it by exploiting the situation to their advantage. In the people’s eyes, a boss who knocks on the door offering free food is a hero. And the boss knows that he can then count on the support of these families when necessary, when, for example, the mafia sponsors a politician for election who will further their criminal interests.
The south is no stranger to politicians who aid and abet the mafia. They are elected because the local Mafiosi forces the citizens to vote for them in exchange for services – in today’s case, dinner for the family. Numerous politicians have been arrested after investigations proved they were in association with the mafia.
Varese said:
These handouts by the mafias are not gifts. The mafia does not do anything out of its kind heart. They are favors that everyone will have to pay back in some form or another, by aiding and abetting a fugitive, holding a gun, dealing drugs and the like.
They might be able to benefit in other ways from the current lockdown and especially from the future, when Italians will all be able to return to work, spend more money, and get the economy on its feet again. But surely the story exemplified by the handouts of food parcels in Palermo and mafias Naples shows their true nature, and it tells why they are so dangerous.
What might be most dangerous of all, at the moment, is the mafia helping businesses in need by supplying them with capital. Many small establishments may not have the resources to survive this pandemic. But with the mafia’s help, they can stay afloat. However, with that comes a price. When society returns to normal, the mob will use those businesses for money laundering their profits from criminal activities.
