Italian Mafia cashes in on the Muslim migration onslaught

The Cosa Nostra has never had the interests of the Italian people at heart. It’s all about power and profit for themselves, at the expense of Italians who are footing the bill.

Financial Times has the story:

Italy’s organised crime groups have demonstrated devious ingenuity in everything from drug trafficking and prostitution to extortion and counterfeiting.

Now they have found a new source of illicit profits: the migration crisis that has seen thousands of asylum-seekers land on Italian shores after crossing the Mediterranean Sea from north Africa.

The care and feeding of such migrants may end up costing the Italian government as much as €800m per year, with it offering private individuals, companies and non-profit organisations up to €35 a day per person to host them. That includes a daily pocket money allowance of €2.50 that hosts are supposed to pay directly to the refugees.

Those funds have proven irresistible to the Mafia, according to Italian prosecutors and watchdog groups, who say criminal groups have succeeded at rigging the awarding of the contracts for the management of migrant reception centres in several high-profile cases.

“This is a very widespread problem. Welcoming migrants has become a big business,” says Gabriella Stramaccioni, who is charge of social policy at Libera, an anti-Mafia organisation. “We believe many centres are involved, in several cities,” she adds.

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