Many fear that the mafia’s actions aren’t purely altruistic and that if Italians are forced to rely on organized crime groups rather than their own government, it will only grow the mafia’s influence, and ultimately come at a steep price.

“It’s a creeping welfare,” said Sergio Nazzaro, an expert on organized crime, who formerly served as spokesman for the president of the Anti-Mafia Parliamentary Commission. Nazzaro is currently serving as voluntary spokesman for the Italian Deputy Minister of Health for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis.

“But the food, this help, is poison,” he said. “It’s free now, but eventually they’ll ask you to pay them back by working for them in some way, like smuggling drugs. The mafia is not helping because they are good people,” Nazzaro told OCCRP.

According to Nazzaro, the initiatives are similar to those employed by the mafia during election seasons in southern Italy, when acceptance of mafia help comes with the assumption that one will in turn vote for the syndicate’s choice candidate.

“Who are the people that accept to trade their freedom and democracy for just food? They are the people who are most desperate,” Nazzaro said.

Cont'd:
https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/12096-mafia-aid-may-come-at-a-steep-price-in-southern-italy