Naples Ticket Scam: Here's How Stewards Let Friends In

To enter the stadium Maradna of Naples in the year of the championship and with many sold outs there was someone who invented the fraud of the tickets marked to facilitate the work of the unfaithful stewards. The role played by the unfaithful stewards was crucial, three of whom were subjected to a search today, one of whom, with the role of supervisor, turned out to be the point of reference for the two organizers of the "ticket business". The circumstance emerges from the investigations, which lasted a couple of months, which led today to about ten searches carried out this morning by the financial police of the Economic and Financial Police Unit of the Guardia di Finanza of Naples.

And, in fact, contacts between this person and the two 'bosses' are frequent, especially before and after the home games of the Azzurri. Not only that.

It also emerged that the “altered” tickets (i.e. purchased with fictitious names and then modified – illegally – with the names of the customers of the touts) were made immediately recognisable with particular signs which made the work of checking for unfaithful stewards positioned at the stadium entrances easier.

The scam discovered during the Champions League match, Napoli-Eintracht Frankfurt

According to the financiers, this steward managed a real team of colleagues, also unfaithful, also responsible for procuring - always for a fee - customers for the "ticket scalpers". He himself would have personally accompanied "customer" fans, even foreigners.

And his earnings are estimated at several thousand euros. Some of these marked tickets were seized by the financial police during the Champions League match Napoli-Eintracht which later became sadly known for the urban warfare between the two sets of fans.

Touts investigated in Naples, their clients workers and professionals

They managed a varied clientele, from workers to professionals, the Neapolitan touts who, with the help of some compliant lottery shops, got hold of tickets for Napoli matches at the Maradona stadium (in Serie A and for the Champions League) and also for other events, such as concerts, which they then resold at double the prices.

The circumstance emerges from the investigations of the Economic and Financial Police Unit of the Guardia di Finanza of Naples, which today carried out about ten searches between Naples and the province. The investigations, since February, have made use of wiretapping activities from which it emerges that the touts had professionals as regular clients to whom they also promised the shirts of the new Italian champions.

The task of changing the names on the tickets had been delegated to one of the suspects, believed to be a member of the criminal association, who operated from his home.

Touts investigated in Naples, each with a large turnover

For each of the touts investigated, the turnover was considerable, around a few tens of thousands of euros for each game: this is what emerges from the investigations of the Guardia di Finanza of Naples, which today carried out a series of searches as part of an investigation coordinated by the Naples Prosecutor's Office. The crimes contested by the financial police are criminal association aimed at counterfeiting, fraud and receiving stolen goods.

At the moment there are nine people under investigation, two of whom are said to have played a leading role. In fact, requests from potential clients from all over Italy converge on them.

One of the two, moreover, is the owner of a social media account on which he was easily traceable. The financial police also intercepted the conversations of the suspects, discovering, for example, that a ticket for the upper Curva A for the Napoli-Milan match on 2 April 2023, for example, had been sold by scalpers for around 120 euros.

In one conversation, a complaint was also intercepted from a mother who called one of the ticket scalpers to let him know that her children, both in possession of an “altered” ticket, had been blocked at the entrances. The scalper replied by saying that if he had been called, he could have resolved the issue.

He also says he is ready to return the amount. From the conversation it is clear that he manages a turnover of 2-300 Tickets and therefore some inconvenience can happen.

The information acquired also gives - by approximation - the size of the business which is, by defect, around tens of thousands of euros for each of the touts investigated.