The financial police of the Gorizia Company have concluded a large-scale judicial police operation, called “TRAFFIC 2”, aimed at combating the international trafficking of large quantities of petroleum products taken from refineries located in various Eastern European countries and intended to be released for consumption in tax evasion in the national territory as diesel fuel for motor vehicles, once stored in illegal warehouses. The Gorizia yellow flames, during multiple operational interventions carried out between 2017 and 2019, proceeded to arrest 3 smugglers and to report at large 83 people, of whom 50 foreigners and 33 subjects of Italian citizenship, resident in the provinces of Milan, Bolzano, Gorizia, Venice, Perugia, Rome, Latina, Foggia, Taranto, Naples, Catania, Caltanissetta.
The crimes contested are, at the current stage of the investigations, diesel smuggling and irregular circulation of vehicles dedicated to the transport of petroleum products subject to excise duty or consumption tax.
Assets worth over 3 million euros were seized on probative initiative, including 8 tractors, 28 semi-trailers and 851.000 litres of mineral oil, for tax evasion of approximately 600 thousand euros. The investigative developments following the seizures carried out in flagrante delicto also allowed to ascertain the fraudulent consumption, on the national territory, of a further 1.049.677 litres of diesel and the failure to pay excise duties for the amount of 680 thousand euros. Almost all of the seized petroleum product, with the authorization of the Public Prosecutor's Office at the Court of Gorizia, was assigned, pursuant to Law 43/2015, to the National Fire Brigade Corps, in particular to the Provincial Commands of Udine, Gorizia, Trieste, Verona, Treviso, Belluno, Padua, Salerno, to supply the rescue vehicles used in some of the recent national disasters.
The petroleum product, transported in tanks and articulated trucks often lacking safety requirements for the transport of dangerous goods, came from refineries located in various Eastern European countries; in one case, the use of a tanker intended for the transport of milk that instead contained diesel was also ascertained.
Article published on 16 July 2019 - 09:38
