This though, this I understand.
Crooks from the lowliest mugger to the top of the corrupt government heap in Africa (and elsewhere) are opportunistic. Amazingly so. They see and act on criminal opportunities that regular people are simply blind to.
From Forbes, March 27:
“La mafia è come la coronavirus—ti prenderà dovunque.”
[The mafia is like the coronavirus—it will get you wherever you are.]
— Sergio
Nazzaro, spokesperson for the president of Italy’s Anti-mafia
parliamentary commission,
to the Global Initiative Against Transnational
Organized Crime
“This is a perfect opportunity for scams,
and some of my former associates on the street are into it right now.”
— Michael Franzese, a former capo of the Colombo crime family, to Forbes
If transnational organized crime had its own stock market, it would have taken a serious beating this month like the world’s legitimate stock exchanges have suffered. Sealed borders are not exactly helpful for smuggling-supply chains of any type of contraband. Nor are locked-down streets of much value to drug dealers. In Bosnia, where vehicle theft is a massive problem, thieves are complaining that it’s harder to steal cars without being detected when streets are quiet and devoid of people—according to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime [GI-TOC]. In China, where I traveled two decades ago to document its role as the world’s capital of counterfeiting, GI-TOC reports that Chinese factories on lockdown are leaving criminal enterprises without alternative sources of supply.....MUCH MORE
But before you shed any tears for the earth’s mobsters, their stock market is climbing again, as new opportunities are emerging, thanks to the pandemic—opportunities that may even be long-term. Think of mafia groups as viruses themselves, always aggressively adapting and morphing to infect societies for power and profit.
Yesterday, GI-TOC, a renowned Geneva-based network of more than 500 organized crime experts, released a valuable report titled “Crime and Contagion: The impact of a pandemic on organized crime.” The paper provides various examples from around the world of how organized crime (OC in law enforcement parlance) is coping and ultimately exploiting the COVID-19 nightmare....
Now I understand the lack of action in gambling mentioned in the NYP article. And I understand the Mexican cartels running into logistical problems procuring their fentanyl from China. Ditto for their methamphetamine precursors. But you have to assume they've already made adjustments. These people are adaptable, like a virus.
They are not sitting at home waiting for their government check.
