Orange blossoms for 24 Livorno residents – 15 men and 9 women – who, between 2014 and 2019, celebrated their wedding with foreign citizens. The fateful “yes” was not, however, driven by the desire to fulfill the dream of a life together.
In fact, these were fleeting and occasional encounters between couples of perfect strangers, seen together only to carry out the necessary formalities for the celebration of the civil rite and, in most cases, definitively separated as soon as they left the Town Hall door.
100 soldiers belonging to 10 Departments of the Corps, coordinated by this Provincial Command and the dependent PEF Nucleus (Economic-Financial Police) have carried out, in the last 48 hours, 5 personal precautionary measures and 55 searches in the provinces of Livorno, Siena, La Spezia, Turin and Padua to put an end to a sneaky system of celebrating false marriages between Italians, South Americans and North Africans aimed at obtaining a residence permit in Italy.
The investigation, conducted by the Guardia di Finanza (Fiamme Gialle) under the direction of the Livorno Public Prosecutor's Office, concerns the alleged crimes of aiding and abetting illegal immigration and inducing forgery of a public document. These include, in particular, a citizen of the Dominican Republic, a 55-year-old man arrested in prison, and four Livorno residents, one of whom is a woman, who are under an obligation to remain in residence and report to the judicial police. These individuals are the serial organizers of the sham marriages, and the investigating judge of the Livorno Court has ordered precautionary measures against them, granting the request made by the Public Prosecutor's Office.
The public officials who intervened in the celebration of the 24 false marriages (in 23 cases at the Municipality of Livorno and on one occasion at that of Rosignano Marittimo) and in the issuing of residence permits to 24 foreigners (16 from the Dominican Republic, 2 from Peru, 1 from Cuba, 2 from Nigeria, 1 from Morocco, 1 from Tunisia and 1 from Senegal) were also found to be unaware and innocently involved in the illicit system.
In the course of activities aimed at repressing illicit trafficking conducted by the Mobile Section of the PEF Nucleus, it emerged that, in exchange for payment of money, the perpetrators of the crimes found compliant individuals - Italians of both sexes, frequently gravitating in the areas surrounding Piazza della Repubblica and Via Garibaldi, often in need of the liquidity necessary to purchase drugs - available to "fictitiously" contract marriage with completely unknown people, in many cases, as mentioned, met only and exclusively on the occasion of the wedding ceremony.
Orange blossoms for 24 Livorno residents – 15 men and 9 women – who, between 2014 and 2019, celebrated their wedding with foreign citizens. The fateful “yes” was not, however, driven by the desire to fulfill the dream of a life together.
In fact, these were fleeting and occasional encounters between couples of perfect strangers, seen together only to carry out the necessary formalities for the celebration of the civil rite and, in most cases, definitively separated as soon as they left the Town Hall door.
100 soldiers belonging to 10 Departments of the Corps, coordinated by this Provincial Command and the dependent PEF Nucleus (Economic-Financial Police) have carried out, in the last 48 hours, 5 personal precautionary measures and 55 searches in the provinces of Livorno, Siena, La Spezia, Turin and Padua to put an end to a sneaky system of celebrating false marriages between Italians, South Americans and North Africans aimed at obtaining a residence permit in Italy.
The investigation, conducted by the Guardia di Finanza (Fiamme Gialle) under the direction of the Livorno Public Prosecutor's Office, concerns the alleged crimes of aiding and abetting illegal immigration and inducing forgery of a public document. These include, in particular, a citizen of the Dominican Republic, a 55-year-old man arrested in prison, and four Livorno residents, one of whom is a woman, who are under an obligation to remain in residence and report to the judicial police. These individuals are the serial organizers of the sham marriages, and the investigating judge of the Livorno Court has ordered precautionary measures against them, granting the request made by the Public Prosecutor's Office.
The public officials who intervened in the celebration of the 24 false marriages (in 23 cases at the Municipality of Livorno and on one occasion at that of Rosignano Marittimo) and in the issuing of residence permits to 24 foreigners (16 from the Dominican Republic, 2 from Peru, 1 from Cuba, 2 from Nigeria, 1 from Morocco, 1 from Tunisia and 1 from Senegal) were also found to be unaware and innocently involved in the illicit system.
In the course of activities aimed at repressing illicit trafficking conducted by the Mobile Section of the PEF Nucleus, it emerged that, in exchange for payment of money, the perpetrators of the crimes found compliant individuals - Italians of both sexes, frequently gravitating in the areas surrounding Piazza della Repubblica and Via Garibaldi, often in need of the liquidity necessary to purchase drugs - available to "fictitiously" contract marriage with completely unknown people, in many cases, as mentioned, met only and exclusively on the occasion of the wedding ceremony.
EDITORIAL TEAM
Choose the social channel you want to subscribe to