ROME—Italy’s mafia clans are taking advantage of the CCP virus pandemic to buy favor with low-income families facing financial ruin, say prosecutors and officials. The clans are offering loans and food in what is seen as an age-old recruitment tactic.
After decades of campaigning to curb the influence of the mafia in its traditional strongholds of southern Italy, officials and charitable groups say the pandemic has created new opportunities for organized crime to regain people’s loyalties.
