Italian Mafia May Profit From European COVID-19 Aid - Law Enforcement

ROME (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd September, 2021) The Italian mafia groups have the levers to tap into the funding that the country receives from the European Union's COVID-19 recovery fund, Italy's Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate (DIA) said in a report released on Wednesday.

"Possessing an entrepreneurial ability, the mafia can turn their attention toward public funds soon, thanks to government initiatives to provide timely economic support to the categories most affected by restrictions," the report read.

In the second half of 2020, organized crime continued to target the country's social and economic structures, which, according to the report, is a strategy that allows the mafia to get a hold of companies in dire state and "seize public resources dedicated to the health care.

"

"Such a situation requires a continuation in the fight against organized crime with aggressive behavior in relation to assets illegally accumulated by the mafia, through judicial instruments and restrictive measures on property," the investigators said.

On July 17, the DIA issued a separate report that stressed that the COVID-19 pandemic may have open ways of rapid enrichment for the Italian mafia groups.