"Click Day" scam: entry fees up to €7 to enter Italy

A €1.000 deposit for each passport, to be paid before even submitting the application. This is one of the key elements of the alleged scheme to facilitate illegal immigration, as uncovered by the Salerno District Anti-Mafia Directorate in the latest strand of the "Click Day" investigation, which involves the fraudulent use of immigration flow decrees.

Salerno's investigating judge, Benedetta Setta, has ordered 22 people to be placed under house arrest: 18 have been placed under house arrest and four have been ordered to report to the judicial police. Among those under the order are Salerno lawyer Gerardo Cembalo and his wife Maria Chirico, both of whom have been placed under house arrest.

The charge of transnational conspiracy

Cembalo and Chirico are charged, among other crimes, with transnational criminal conspiracy to aid and abet illegal immigration. The two had already been arrested in July.
2024, as part of the first tranche of the investigation, and last April they had been sentenced in the first instance to 5 years and 8 months and 5 years and 4 months of imprisonment respectively.

The operation was carried out by Carabinieri officers from the Labor Inspectorate and by finance officers from the Salerno Provincial Command, on behalf of the Anti-Mafia Directorate. The measures targeted suspects in the provinces of Salerno, Naples, Avellino, Benevento, Campobasso, Rome, Ancona, Pisa, Savona, and Brescia.

Salvatore Attanasio, Catello Fontanella, Adamo La Regina, Gaetano Pirozzi, and Michele Pirozzi were also placed under house arrest, with different positions and charges.

The estimated price list: up to 7 thousand euros

According to the prosecution's reconstruction, the group transformed the immigration flow decree procedures into a parallel market for the entry into Italy of non-EU citizens, particularly from Morocco, Bangladesh, and India.

The asking price for each application could have reached €7.000. The initial payment, €1.000 for each passport, was considered essential to initiate the process and, according to investigators, cover the fees allocated to the various parties involved in the supply chain.

The order also includes a wiretap in which Cembalo, according to the prosecution, accuses a Moroccan representative of failing to collect the advance payment for a prospective immigrant. That conversation, highlighted by the investigating judge for precautionary purposes, highlights the need to cancel the application in the absence of the initial sum, also because part of the money was allegedly earmarked for the allegedly complacent employer.

The network between Morocco and Italy

The investigation is considered a new branch of the "Click Day" investigation. According to the DDA, the organization operated on multiple levels and on both sides of the Mediterranean, extending its operations from the Cilento area to the Vesuvian area and moving sums of money worth several million euros.

In their countries of origin, foreign citizens would have recruited fellow countrymen interested in moving to Italy, collecting documents and money. In Casablanca, where Cembalo allegedly had a second office, a unit was allegedly in charge of acquiring passports and sending the necessary documentation.

In Italy, according to the investigation, professionals and intermediaries would have prepared the applications, while entrepreneurs deemed compliant would have made available existing companies or companies created specifically to appear as employers.

Companies and balance sheets under scrutiny

The authorization requests were allegedly submitted through companies believed to be willing to act as employers. In some cases, according to investigators, fictitious companies were set up, especially in the Naples area, accompanied by altered accounting documentation to demonstrate a turnover consistent with the hiring of foreign workers.

The final stage would have coincided with the "click days," when applications were submitted electronically to obtain entry clearance. The investigation will now face scrutiny by the defense and subsequent judicial proceedings.