Introduction. Civic honesty, the moral standards that define citizens' commitment to the public good, is fundamental for social cooperation and collective well-being. Prior research has emphasized the role of trust in institutions and in fellow citizens as predictors of such standards. However, much of this evidence comes from the Global North, where state authority is relatively secure. Less is known about how these dynamics unfold in contexts where the state's monopoly over governance functions is contested by powerful criminal organisations, such as mafia-type groups. Purpose. This study examines whether country-level criminal groups' influence and state resilience moderate the relationship between interpersonal and institutional trust and civic honesty. Method. We employed mixed-effects multilevel modelling combined with an extended Johnson-Neyman technique to probe multiple moderators simultaneously. The dataset comprised 132,602 individuals across 84 countries. Country-level indicators of mafia influence and state resilience were integrated with individual-level measures of interpersonal and institutional trust, enabling cross-level analyses. Results. Institutional trust was positively associated with civic honesty in contexts characterised by weaker mafia presence and stronger state resilience. However, this relationship reversed in environments with high mafia influence and fragile state institutions, suggesting that confidence in compromised institutions is linked to reduced civic honesty. Interpersonal trust, by contrast, was negatively associated with civic honesty only in states with low resilience, indicating that trust in others does not necessarily translate into commitment to the public good when institutional safeguards are weak. Conclusions. These findings demonstrate that the impact of trust on civic honesty is contingent on broader political and criminal contexts. They underscore the importance of considering how political features such as criminal governance and state fragility reshape the meaning and consequences of trust. Policy implications for strengthening civic values under contested governance are discussed.