Criminal Contagion: How Mafias, Gangsters and Scammers Profit from a Pandemic

Covid-19 is reshaping and challenging governments, societies and economies in previously unimaginable ways—but gangsters and profiteers have adapted. They have found new routes for illegal commodities, from narcotics to people.

Shortages, lockdowns and public attitudes have brought the underworld and upperworld closer together, as criminals strive to meet needs, maximise opportunities and fill governance vacuums. Unscrupulous fraudsters are touting fake remedies to desperate people: counterf...