They sent the counterfeit banknotes, printed in the province of Naples and precisely in Arzano, by sending toys in postal packages.
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The transnational trafficking of counterfeit banknotes has been discovered and dismantled by the military Carabinieri Anti-Falsification Monetary Command who executed an order for the dispositive of personal coercive precautionary measures issued by the Judge for Preliminary Investigations of the Court of Naples against 8 individuals, all seriously suspected of criminal association aimed at trafficking in counterfeit currency.
In particular, the leader of the organization was hit by a custodial order in prison; while 5 other custodial orders under house arrest and 2 orders prohibiting residence in the province of Naples were executed.
The complex investigative activity, started in July 2018 as part of a targeted investigative strategy to combat “Naples Group”, has focused on the main distribution collectors activated in the darknet and social media marketplace, through payments in criptovalute.
Counterfeit banknotes sent across Europe
The investigations coordinated by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Naples made it possible to ascertain the operation of a criminal association structured for the management of a distribution network adjacent to the most fearsome Neapolitan production chains, with terminals in Italy (provinces of Gorizia, Florence, Catania, Salerno) and abroad (Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Great Britain, Indonesia, Ireland, Latvia, Holland, Poland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Romania, Spain and Ukraine).
The international extension of the investigations saw the involvement of numerous European states with the collaboration of the Austrian authorities and the financing and support of Europol for the connection with the foreign police forces involved.
The investigations, conducted with the support of the Information Technology Department of the Carabinieri Scientific Investigations Group and with the contribution of the newly established Cryptocurrency Section of the Carabinieri Anti-Counterfeiting Command, have overall allowed us to outline the distribution dynamics of the counterfeit currency, through a vendor active on the marketplaces since 2012, which, using complex telematic anonymization processes, managed the payments in cryptocurrency and the resulting supplies made by forwarding agents who sent postal packages and parcels – hiding the counterfeit currency inside various materials (toys, wooden artefacts, etc.).
In fact, 41 postal packages were seized upon delivery in Italy and several foreign countries, as well as counterfeit banknotes of various denominations (20, 50 and 100 euros), for a total of 120.000 euros (one hundred and twenty thousand), as well as numerous "devices" used for transactions carried out on the darknet and for cryptocurrency transfers.
During the investigations, 31 individuals who had completed the purchase of counterfeit banknotes on the dark web, located in Italy and abroad, were arrested red-handed.
The clandestine printing house was in Arzano
But a clandestine digital printing plant for the production of counterfeit banknotes, equipped with high-performance equipment (printers and computers), was also dismantled in Arzano. Its producers were already arrested on 1 December 2021, in execution of the precautionary measure of house arrest, issued by the investigating judge of the Court of Naples-North as part of the same operation.
50 suspects identified and reported
A total of 50 suspects were also reported at large. At the same time as the execution of the aforementioned precautionary measures, the territorially competent Arma Commands carried out numerous searches of the terminals of the distribution chain located in the provinces of Udine, Rovigo, Genoa, Florence, Rome, Naples, Reggio Calabria, Barletta-Andria-Trani and Catania.
Furthermore, for terminals located abroad, the police forces of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Holland, Poland, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Spain and Lithuania were involved in the context of international police cooperation. .
Article published on 13 January 2023 - 08:28
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