Anti-smuggling blitz between Naples and Caserta, 10 precautionary measures

La Guardia di Finanza di Caserta executed an order of pre-trial detention in prison towards 10 Guests, seriously suspected of being part of a transnational criminal organisation dedicated to smuggling di tobacco foreign products.

The operation was carried out at the end of an investigative activity coordinated by the District Management di Napoli with an order issued by the gIP of the Court di Napoli.

Investigative activity coordinated with EUROPOL

The illicit activities were reconstructed by cross-referencing data resulting from telephone and environmental interceptions, video recordings, observation, control and shadowing activities, operational findings and police cooperation activities carried out through the European agency EUROPOL which, also through operational meetings with foreign police bodies, has allowed us to acquire essential information on the procurement activity carried out abroad.

Le investigations were made particularly complex by the use, by some top members of the organization, of an encrypted communications platform, whose chats were acquired thanks to the cooperation activity developed with the EUROPOL agency and whose analysis revealed how the criminal organization operated through consolidated mechanisms that were particularly careful to avoid possible interception by the police forces.

Tobacco smuggling with Eastern European countries

The investigations have, in this sense, allowed us to reveal the existence of a well-structured criminal organization, with transnational projection, with an operational base in the province of Naples and branches in various Villages ofEastern Europe, mainly the Croatia, for the supply of tobacco in smuggling, then destined for subsequent resale both in the Naples and Caserta areas.

The activities highlighted that the purchases were made through foreign individuals who operated as real brokers in the specific criminal sector and allowed the identification of the contraband importation of over 65 tons di tobacco foreign manufactured goods, the transport of which took place by concealing them with cover loads and which were partly seized in various repressive operations carried out during the investigations.

On one occasion, the military of the Core di Economic and Financial Police di Caserta They seized over 5 tons of cigarettes and arrested six people in the act.

The custody orders in prison, which concerned five people of Italian nationality, three Croatians, a Serbian and a Ukrainian, are being executed both on the territory of the State and on the European one through the work of foreign police forces also thanks to the effective and valuable collaboration of the Agency EUROPOL.