Giugliano: Smugglers' den in condominium garage: 1,6 tons of cigarettes seized

Giugliano - A decidedly excessively fast pace through the city streets, a sudden swerve, and then a rapid descent down the ramp of a condominium garage. This reckless maneuver was enough to set off alarm bells for the officers of the Naples Guardia di Finanza's Rapid Response Unit. A lightning-fast tailing led to the discovery of a veritable hub for the smuggling of foreign manufactured tobacco in the heart of Giugliano in Campania.

 The raid in the basement garage

Suspicious of the driver's maneuvers, the "Baschi Verdi" (Green Berets), on a patrol, followed the van to the condominium garage area. There, they caught the man in the act: he was moving and loading heavy cardboard boxes from one of the garages onto the vehicle.

A haul of over 1,6 tons

The subsequent search of the warehouse revealed the true extent of the illicit trafficking. Inside the garage were 150 cases of cigarettes bearing the "Marlboro" and "Winston" brands, weighing a total of over 1.600 kilograms. All cartons had been brought into Italy without paying excise duties and without any legal permits. The entire shipment of "blondes" and the garage were placed under criminal seizure.

The driver of the vehicle, a 52-year-old Neapolitan man already known to law enforcement for specific crimes in the same sector, was arrested on charges of possession of contraband tobacco and evasion of excise duty. He has been placed at the disposal of the Public Prosecutor's Office of North Naples. Investigations are continuing as part of the preliminary investigation to trace the supply channels and distribution network of tobacco products in the Naples area.