Small purchases, but frequent and always with 50 euro notes that to the sight and touch seemed completely identical to those issued by the State Mint.
And instead they were fake, but so well made that they even fooled electronic verification devices used by many merchants. The investigation that allowed us to track down almost 41 million euros in 50 and 100 euro banknotes ready to be placed on the market started precisely from small and frequent seizures of banknotes spent in businesses in the Benevento area. The man who put the Carabinieri of the Benevento provincial command on the trail of an organization with branches throughout Italy, Belgium and France is a 55-year-old minor criminal from Benevento.
A 55-year-old who however had counterfeit banknotes that according to the Carabinieri of the Anti-Counterfeiting Monetary Command of Rome had never been registered in any class of counterfeit. A new product, made with off-set printing, which although not made with the special watermarked paper, had the characteristic reliefs that allow you to distinguish a counterfeit banknote from an original.
The investigations began in 2018 and the 55-year-old is associated with another 69-year-old from Benevento who is the mastermind of the organization that led to 7 people in prison, 28 under house arrest, 8 with an obligation to remain in their home and one with an obligation to sign, with 10 other people under investigation at large. The 69-year-old was also able to work with foreign currencies, and had more than twenty years of experience in the coin counterfeiting sector. In fact, the man had connections with three people from Naples, including a printer historically involved in the counterfeit currency business, since the time of the “Napoli Group”, a criminal cartel that sold counterfeit banknotes when the Lira was still in circulation.
Little by little, the entire network of contacts beyond Campania was reconstructed. From the Giugliano area, in the province of Naples, the banknotes arrived in Lombardy and then in France and Belgium, where a 37-year-old Belgian and a 33-year-old Frenchman operated, who came to Benevento several times to stock up on counterfeit banknotes. But there was also a brief period in which the gang had access to watermarked paper used for the originals.
The Campania gang was also connected to a group in the province of Pavia, in Villanterio, where three people ran a clandestine printing press and were arrested while they were busy producing counterfeit money. In Naples, a 70-year-old was in charge of storing the printed money. He had created a hiding place on his property where he could store 50 and 100 euro banknotes worth 41 million in nine food containers.
And there the Carabinieri also seized metal matrices and proofs. The investigation, in which Europol collaborated on the international front, was coordinated by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Benevento, which also obtained from the investigating judge an order for the seizure of assets aimed at confiscation. These are real estate, securities and accounts of one of the suspects who was subjected to a thorough financial investigation, which resulted in the reports of 8 people who must also answer for money laundering, self-laundering and fictitious interposition.
In particular, seals were placed on 50 apartments, 8 commercial premises, 2 lands, 10 companies in various sectors, in particular in the production of playing cards, real estate, betting and car rental. Also seized were 12 cars and a luxury boat and 22 bank accounts, all for a total value of approximately 8 million euros.
Prison detention was ordered for Franco Domenico De Iasio, 69 years old, Gerardo De Iasio, 56 years old, from Benevento, Pompeo Masone, 55 years old, from San Giorgio del Sannio, while house arrest was placed on Vincenzina Taddeo, 51 years old, from San Giorgio del Sannio, Francesco Lunghi, 62 years old, from Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, Silvano Emilio Marraffa, 61 years old, from Trecate, Carlo Mazzoleni, 56 years old, from Villa d'Adda, Alfredo Muoio, 66 years old, from Casalnuovo, Igino Secci, 72 years old, from Cergnago.
House arrest instead for Danilo Bianchi, 66 years old, from San Vendemiano, Giovanni Bianco, 55 years old, from Venice, Stefano Bocchiola, 51 years old, from Valera Fratta, Luciano Cancedda, 62 years old, from Musile di Piave, Enrrico Cante, 52 years old, from Giugliano, Teresa Del Riccio, 72 years old, from Campobasso, Igor Divetain Plemiannikov, 33 years old, from Maire (France), Debora Marchitto, 8 years old, from Ferrazzano, Stefano Gigante, 43 years old, from Turin, Mauro Giolo, 67 years old, from Grugliasco, Rocco (alias Roberto) Ianniciello, 57 years old, from Flumeri, Ottavio (alias Chicco) Lafleur, 67 years old, from Milan, Eusebio (alias Nello) La Magna, 51 years old, from Brescia, Giovanni Morello, 88 years old, from Concesio, Valerio Navarra, 48 years old, from Rombiolo, Domenico Nocera, 27 years old, from Turin, Ciro Panico, 73 years old, from Giugliano, Antonio Papaccio, 76 years old, from Afragola, Gianluca Petrone, 38 years old, living in Paris, Aniello Rivieccio, 47 years old, from Torre del Greco, Michele Rivieccio, 70 years old, from Torre del Greco, Coismo Maiolo, 41 years old, from Miliano, Geoffroy Renè Simon, 50 years old, residing in Belgium, Francesco Sommella, 37 years old, from Giugliano, Alessandro Aprea, 61 years old, from Naples, and Ernani Vassallo, 38 years old, from Pomigliano d'Arco.
Finally, the obligation to remain at home, instead, for Gerardo De Iasio, 35 years old, from Benevento, defended by the lawyers Antonio Leone, Gerardo Giorgione, Vittorio Fucci, Luca Cavuoto, Claudio Fusco, Pasquale Leonardo Borrelli, 52 years old, from Naples, Roberto (known as Nando) Comparetti, 56 years old, from Milan, Ionel Claudiu Neculcea, 44 years old, from Spessa, Antonio Piscopo, 43 years old, from Naples, Stanislao (alias Michele) Pirro, 61 years old, from Toirno, Daniele Sperandio, 44 years old, from San Giorgio di Lomellina, Aldo Zubbani, 70 years old, from Carrara and for Caterina De Rosa, 59 years old, from Giugliano, the obligation to sign.
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