Bossip Video

Easter Celebrations In Italy

Source: Roberto Serra – Iguana Press / Getty

While Italy continues to deal with their country-wide coronavirus lockdown, members of the mafia are reportedly stepping up to the plate to help those in need.

According to reports from The Guardian, videos of known Mafia gang members delivering food and other essential goods have been surfacing online over the past couple weeks. They reportedly brought the supplies to some of the poorest regions across the country, including Campania, Calabria, Sicily, and Puglia.

As you probably already know, Italy was one of the European countries to be hit hardest by the COVID-19, citing over 160,000 confirmed cases and more than 16,000 deaths. The severity of their situation is what resulted in such a strict lockdown going forward.

“For over a month, shops, cafés, restaurants and pubs have been closed,” Nicola Gratteri, an anti-mafia investigator, explained. “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 their control over people’s lives.”

As you can see from that clip, the mafia’s delivery of these goods probably isn’t just out of the kindness of their hearts. Italian minister of the interior Luciana Lamorgese has pointed out that these gang members could “take advantage of the rising poverty” in the country. It is suspected by many that the deliveries are being made to gain local support and to “recruit people to its organization.”

Lamorgese also stressed that their care packages “are not gifts,” but favors that locals would be expected to pay back.

Comments

Bossip Comment Policy
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.