NAPOLI (ITALPRESS) – The Carabinieri of Genoa, in the provinces of Naples, Caserta, Benevento, Avellino, Palermo, Brescia, Pavia and Cosenza, have carried out an order of precautionary custody, at the request of the Prosecutor of the Republic to the Tribunal of Naples, against 21 persons. Delinquer association is charged with fraud in old people’s harm, receptacle, recycling and self-reclaiming. Fifteen have been arrested, 2 are under house arrest and 4 have been subjected to the obligation to reside in the municipality of residence with the obligation to submit to the judicial police. In the precautionary measure 33 scams were investigated, of which 27 were consumed and 6 attempted, between May 2024 and January 2025, with illicit profits still in progress of quantification, but which far exceed 300,000 euros. The contested scams were carried out in Liguria (Genua and Chiavari), Lombardy (Voghera and Pavia), Veneto (Verona), Lazio (Rome and Latina), Campania (Ottaviano), Calabria (Cosenza, Lamezia Terme and Catanzaro) and Sicily (Palermo and Monreale).
In the course of the investigation, launched in May 2024, 5 people were arrested in scourgency of crime and denounced 7 other individuals for fraud and attempted aggravated scam, as well as recovered money and gold jewelry subtracted to the victims for a value of approximately 150,000 euros.
From what emerged during the investigation activities, the scams were always carried out through well-defined figures: the “telephonists”, responsible for contacting the victims, the “transfertists”, deputies to withdraw money and the jewels from the victims, and the “corrieri” to which, in some cases, while not participating in the scams, was entrusted the transport of the proceeds of the crimes in Naples. Even the modus operandi always followed the same scheme: the victims were contacted by phone by 16 members of the Carabinieri or lawyers, who reported that a joint of the elderly victim, generally a son or a nephew, had caused a road accident in which the counterpart had been severely injured.
At that point, taking advantage of the state of agitation generated in the misplaced with the false news, the scammers made him believe that, in order to avoid the arrest of his relative, it would have been necessary to immediately pay a “caution” to compensate the injured, pushing the victim to make available the money and jewels kept in the house that, within a short period of time, an in charge would withdraw. To prevent the victim from having reconsidered or asked for help, the “telephonist” continued uninterruptedly to entertain her on the phone, pointing out the severity of the facts and the little time available to solve the situation, until the investigations documented how the criminal group organized in detail the realization of the scams, using for the trips to all the national territory car rentals, not that they would exploit smartphones and users only.
In the investigation period, moreover, it emerged that the group had at least one apartment and a B&B, used as a “call center” in Naples, where the couple head of the organization met with the “telephonists”.
The sodalitius was also well rooted in Sicily, where two of the inquiries worked actively in the province of Palermo, from where they sent the proceeds of the scams to Naples.
The group could also count on the support of at least two Neapolitan goldsmiths, who had the task of evaluating, dismantling, buying or recycle the jewels from the crimes. In particular, one of the two professionals is the owner of a jewellery located in the heart of the Campania capital, in the area “Spaccanapoli”, while the other is the owner of an abusive goldsmith workshop, located in Borgo Orefici. The investigation also documented that the money from the illicit activity was invested both in the purchase of a property, and in a betting agency, located in the San Giuseppe district of Naples, used to recycle dirty money.
In addition to personal precautionary measures, preventive seizure of: an abusive goldsmith laboratory, in Naples in the Borgo Orefici;
a house located in the district of Naples Poggioreale, purchased with the proceeds of the crimes; a betting agency in the San Giuseppe district of Naples; 3 cars and a motorcycle; the amount of euro 100.900, already seized in January last in response to the activity of investigations. They were seized, inside the house of an investigation, 120,000 euros in cash, hidden inside a water heater, as well as inside the house of another investigated another 40,000 euros in cash.
– Photos: by video Carabinieri
(ITALPRESS).
