(Jamma) There are four criminal groups, based in the Neapolitan area but with ramifications throughout Italy, at the center of an investigation by the Tax Unit of the Finance Police of Naples which led yesterday to the issue by the Neapolitan investigating judge of 77 precautionary measures, of which 27 with the benefit of house arrest, for the counterfeiting and putting into circulation of counterfeit banknotes and coins.
The investigation, launched in the spring of 2010 as a follow-up to previous activities concluded with precautionary orders (the so-called "MILAN' Operation"), consisted of telephone interceptions on over two hundred users, including foreign ones, found through seizures and shadowing services.
From the outset, two distinct criminal groups emerged operating in Naples and its province, characterized by a top-down structure and substantially similar modus operandi, dedicated to the sale of large quantities of counterfeit Euro banknotes.
The two groups, substantially autonomous for the production and supply and distribution channels of the counterfeit currency, were in fact characterized by a sort of "mutual assistance agreement", which induced the individual associates to lend themselves - in case of need - mutual help for the procurement of raw materials or finished products or to collaborate even in illegal operations managed by members of another organization.
Il trait d'union between the two criminal organizations was constituted by CG, an object dedicated for some time to the commission of crimes relating to counterfeit currency, which dealt with the sale of the counterfeit currency in favor of a vast "customer base", mainly made up of non-EU subjects, procuring, alternatively , by both the aforementioned criminal organizations according to procedures consolidated over time.
Depending on the denomination required, the banknotes were usually indicated with conventional terms, such as "daisies, curves, cots, little ones, t-shirts, adults, loaves, shock absorbers", etc.
The continuation of the investigations carried out on the buyers of counterfeit currency, who were in turn responsible for ensuring the capillary distribution of counterfeit banknotes on the national clandestine market through a crowd of subjects connected to them, made it possible to identify the existence of another criminal group rooted in Campania territory.
The investigative activities carried out in relation to the fourth organization led to the discovery, on 13 August 2011, of a real clandestine mint responsible for minting counterfeit coins of 1 euro denomination, located in Naples, via Ponte della Maddalena (Quartiere Pendino ) and the consequent seizure of a large number of counterfeit coins and semi-finished products.
Preventive seizure operations are also being carried out against thirty-two subjects of numerous banking relationships, movable and immovable assets, the value of which is currently being quantified.
