Cash rolls in as the mafia treats crisis as a business opportunity

ITALY’S mafia organisations are set to boost their profits because of coronavirus, experts say, as mob bosses seize new business opportunities and adapt their drug networks.

As it struggles to confront the crisis, Italy now also has to come to terms with the influence of the criminal organisations and a soaring death toll.

“The market sectors the Italian mafia organisations control are expanding with the pandemic,” Roberto Saviano, the author of Gomorrah – which details the dealings of the Naples crime gang the Camorra – told The Daily Telegraph.

Italian mafia organisations have an estimated turnover of €120 billion (£107billion) per year. Before restrictive measures came in, mafia-linked drug dealers were able to sell their old stock at high prices, and the mobs are preparing for a cocaine boom when people come out of quarantine. “They were able to sell every type of drug, even their old loaf, at higher than average prices,” Mr Saviano says.

“Marijuana and heroin are the most consumed drugs during a time of anxiety. However, cocaine will be more in demand once the crisis is over. The lack of checks at ports means cocaine will be able to travel more easily. The movement of cocaine will be at the highest levels ever.”

Mafia-linked drug dealers are already dodging the strict limits of movements placed on Italians by posing as pizza drivers, says Nicola Gratteri, the national anti-mafia prosecutor.

“Drug dealers in Italian cities dress up as delivery food riders,” he says.

A wave of mafia-linked extortion rackets is also predicted in the wake of the financial catastrophe caused by the virus. “The economic crisis that will result from this pandemic is the most worrying thing,” Mr Gratteri says.

“The closures of restaurants, hotels and pizzerias will have a devastating effect. If money does not come from the state soon, many will fail. In order not to fail, owners could turn to criminal organisations, which use the money from the sale of cocaine to make loans.”

After the 2008 financial crisis, the Italian criminal organisations showed their muscle, using their huge stockpiles of capital to “rescue” companies.

Many predict the same will happen when this pandemic is over.

Nicola Morra, a senator and the chairman of the parliamentary antimafia commission, told The Telegraph: “The mafias are sure to offer credit and capital to entrepreneurs struggling.”