ROME — The mafia will be trying to get their hands on COVID-19 vaccines, Italian police have warned.
Giving vaccines to millions of people is proving problematic for most governments and now law enforcement authorities are bracing for an additional challenge — criminals targeting vaccine distribution.
“Their interest in vaccines is due to the high demand and the low initial supply,” the Italian police body monitoring mafia infiltration of the economy said in an internal report, extracts of which were released on Wednesday.
Interpol Secretary General Jürgen Stock last month warned that vaccines would become “the liquid gold of 2021,” anticipating thefts by criminal gangs from warehouses and attacks on shipments. Criminal organizations with links to health authorities could also demand bribes to jump waiting lists, he said.
Mobsters have already exploited the pandemic to fraudulently access economic support measures and are eyeing the billions that Italy has secured from the European Union’s recovery fund, according to the report.
“In the current pandemic phase, criminals have oriented their interests towards … the diverse economic support measures ordered by the government and, predictably, on the future resources that will be guaranteed under the recovery fund,” it said.
Organized criminal groups are also diversifying as the effects of the virus expand, investigators noted, moving into healthcare-linked businesses such as cleaning and funeral directing.
They also highlighted an increase in criminal syndicates offering liquidity to troubled companies before taking over their assets.
At risk are all those economic sectors “made more attractive by the continuation of the pandemic (demand for medical devices, e-commerce, the sale of food, cleaning and funeral services)” and those “most damaged by the continuation of the crisis (retail trade, tourism, transport, entertainment),” the report said.