diff --git a/userspace/falco/app/actions/init_inspectors.cpp b/userspace/falco/app/actions/init_inspectors.cpp
index ab767f67410..86f6da00366 100644
--- a/userspace/falco/app/actions/init_inspectors.cpp
+++ b/userspace/falco/app/actions/init_inspectors.cpp
@@ -67,7 +67,13 @@ static void init_syscall_inspector(falco::app::state& s, std::shared_ptr<sinsp>
 			                  "Enabled container runtime socket at '" + p + "' via config file");
 		}
 	}
-	inspector->set_cri_async(!s.config->m_container_engines_disable_cri_async);
+
+	bool disable_cri_async = s.config->m_container_engines_disable_cri_async || s.options.disable_cri_async;
+	inspector->set_cri_async(!disable_cri_async);
+
+	if(disable_cri_async) {
+		falco_logger::log(falco_logger::level::DEBUG, "Disabling async lookups for 'CRI'");
+	}
 
 	// Container engines configs via CLI args
 	// If required, set the CRI paths
@@ -79,13 +85,6 @@ static void init_syscall_inspector(falco::app::state& s, std::shared_ptr<sinsp>
 		}
 	}
 
-	// Decide whether to do sync or async for CRI metadata fetch
-	inspector->set_cri_async(!s.options.disable_cri_async);
-
-	if(s.options.disable_cri_async || s.config->m_container_engines_disable_cri_async) {
-		falco_logger::log(falco_logger::level::DEBUG, "Disabling async lookups for 'CRI'");
-	}
-
 	//
 	// If required, set the snaplen
 	//