ROME – The mafia is sure to be making money from the war in Ukraine by selling weapons and other products, according to National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor Federico Cafiero De Raho in an interview with Ansa.

  "Just think, immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall," explained De Raho, "wiretapping detected one mafia member say to the other, 'go and buy everything you can.'"

 "Whenever there is an emergency," De Raho continued, "the mafias try to exploit the channels that they can infiltrate and profit from, a means of advantage for the mafias that has been replicated and that repeatedly detected in judicial history."

  Market difficulties due to the armed conflict are therefore the perfect opportunity for mafias to gain an advantage and turn a profit. “The war in Ukraine will determine the operating profiles of organised crime," said De Raho, "which certainly will not have to respect the banking channels for its liquidity.”

 The Anti-Mafia Prosecutor and his team are working to analyse the prices and types of products that can be easily found or stolen from the market, as well as the possibilities of obtaining weapons through illegal paths. 

ak-ln