A well-organized money laundering operation, generating an estimated turnover of over €200, was dismantled by Carabinieri officers from the Capua Company as part of an investigation coordinated by the Santa Maria Capua Vetere Public Prosecutor's Office.
This morning, the military executed a precautionary measure placing eight people under house arrest, while three other suspects were ordered to remain in their homes, and one person was ordered to report to the judicial police.
The order, signed by the investigating judge, comes at the end of a "complex and prolonged" investigative effort, which began in December 2022 and concluded in June 2024. According to investigators' findings, the group specialized not only in the theft of cars and motorcycles—at least eight cars and two motorcycles stolen by bypassing or tampering with locking systems—but above all in the subsequent phase: receiving and laundering the stolen vehicles.
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The investigations of police They documented a veritable "cleaning" process of vehicles, which were dismantled, modified, and reintroduced into the black market as if they were legitimate. In total, the Carabinieri identified 25 cars and one motorcycle recycled through a well-established system: replacing the original chassis with dummy ones, applying front and rear license plates that did not match those assigned to the stolen vehicles, and reintroducing them into circulation.
An operation, investigators explain, that required technical expertise, availability of spare parts, and a network of contacts to place the "cloned" vehicles. Everything pointed to a structured organization, capable of operating continuously and professionally.
The suspects will now face charges of theft, receiving stolen goods, and money laundering, in various capacities and in concert. The charges will obviously remain to be verified in the subsequent phases of the proceedings, but the investigation has already helped shut down an illicit supply chain that, according to investigators, had become a hub for the black market in "ghost" cars in the province of Caserta.
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