The Mafia is poised to exploit coronavirus, and not just in Italy – By Valentina Di Donato and Tim Lister (CNN) / April 19 2020
Earlier this month, there was a funeral procession in the Sicilian town of Messina, in defiance of a nationwide lockdown in Italy.
It was no ordinary procession. The couple of dozen people walking behind the hearse were paying their respects to a 70-year-old scion of one of the most notorious Mafia famiglie.
Claudio Fava, president of the regional anti-Mafia committee, described it as a “real scandal, an insult to those who lost their relatives in the pandemic.”
Funerals have been banned in Italy since early March as part of a broader set of restrictions aimed at curbing the Covid-19 outbreak that has killed nearly 23,000 people as of Friday.
That the procession took place at all speaks to the power — and the impunity — wielded by the Mafia in parts of Italy.
Senior anti-mafia officials and researchers have told CNN that Mafia clans are already taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic, especially in southern Italy.
Continue to article: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-mafia-is-poised-to-exploit-coronavirus-and-not-just-in-italy/ar-BB12RjHW?ocid=spartanntp
