Italian mafia groups had a turnover of more than 2,2 billion euros in 2020 with their infiltration of the legal economy of the tourism sector, revealed this Thursday (22) a survey released by the Demoskopika Institute.
The calculation made by the organization includes official data from the government and its own sources and also shows that the mafia 'ndrangheta it was responsible for 37% of revenue (810 million euros), showing the strength of the current largest mafia group in the country. Next comes Camorra with 33% (730 million euros) – and the remaining 30% goes to various smaller organizations.
By regions, the southern part of the country (known as Mezzogiorno) is the one with the most cases, with 38% (825 million euros), followed by the center (23% – 515 million euros), northwest (22% – 490 million of euros) and northeast (17% – 370 million euros).
The research also mapped the provinces most at risk of criminal infiltration and identified Campania, Sicily, Lazio, Calabria, Lombardy and Puglia as the main ones. At the other end, those that suffer least are Marches, Veneto, Friuli Veneza Giulia and Trentino-Alto Adige.
“Tourism brought to its knees by the Covid-19 pandemic is a temptation for criminals”, highlights the president of Demoskopika, Raffaele Rio, to HANDLE. In total numbers, there are 33 thousand companies in the tourism sector that would be at risk of bankruptcy with a contraction in revenue of 9,3 billion euros. The prolonged economic crisis caused by the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus has dismantled the financial solidity of many of them, with increasing debts and a lack of income due to the sector's shutdown.
The Institute points out two immediate consequences of this scenario: the increasing loss of liquidity and increasingly sophisticated forms of infiltration by organized criminals within formal society. In this last aspect, it is estimated that 13,5% of companies “in trouble”, which amounts to 4.450 establishments, may be more vulnerable to attempts at economic control by mafias.
In the first six months of 2020, there were 44.884 suspicious financial transactions in Italian regions directly attributable to organized crime – with an exponential increase compared to 2019, equivalent to 242,9%.
In an interview with ANSA, the Minister of Tourism, Massimo Garavaglia, stated that the research carried out “is worrying”.
“It is a phenomenon that heavily damages the department made up of serious businesspeople, affected by the pandemic. They suffer twice from Covid, in business and in mafia competition. The government is developing transparent financing formulas to support operators affected by the economic impact of the virus, in order to make them impervious to mafia contamination”, he highlighted.
The Demoskopika Institute's research sheds light on a warning made by the Italian government itself in May last year, still at the end of the first lockdown period carried out between March and May. At the time, a report said that the lack of liquidity in businesses in the tourist sector, as well as bars and restaurants, put establishments at risk of “usury” by mafiosi”.
The sector is one of the most affected by the health crisis due to the length of time the pandemic has lasted. For most of the months since the first lockdown, non-essential interregional travel has been banned, as well as an intense amount of international flight restrictions. Museums, theaters, cinemas and other cultural facilities have not been able to operate fully since March 2020, with short periods of reopening, reducing the sector's revenue.
Italy has recorded more than 3,9 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 117.997 victims in the pandemic. (ANSA).
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