Forgery and Counterfeiting Operation Uncovered in Italy

They were forging driving licenses, vehicle documents, national identification documents valid for expatriation in order to evade extra-Schengen controls and large quantities of foreign currency notes. For this reason, the military of the Rome anti-counterfeiting command, supported by the provincial commands of Naples and Salerno and, for international extension by Europol, executed an application order for personal coercive measures with simultaneous preventive seizure of assets against nine people: three are under house arrest and six have been banned from residing in Campania. The criminal group, also through foreign intermediaries, fueled various distribution chains of large quantities of blank fake passports, ready for printing of personalization perfected with the affixing of photos and identification data of the end users, whose terminal was located in Malta: it was functional to the dynamics of illegal immigration as foreigners, especially from sub-Saharan and Middle Eastern countries, using false national identification documents, were able to board direct flights to other European countries, without having to pass the stricter controls provided by travelers from extra-Schengen countries. The investigations have allowed to outline a complex criminal organization, firmly rooted in the provinces of Naples and Salerno (Naples, Somma Vesuviana, Marano di Napoli, Portici, Casoria and Scafati), structured by specialization departments and on more interconnected production sites, managed by associated subjects, all accredited with considerable and diversified technical - typographic skills, dedicated to the falsification and distribution of passports, travel documents for foreigners, travel documents for refugees, residence permits, identity cards and Italian driving licenses. The same group, interacting with representatives of Neapolitan crime, also produced foreign vehicle documents necessary for the completion of nationalization procedures, instrumental in laundering stolen vehicles in Italy and abroad and large quantities of false notes of 20,000 Congolese francs, for a total of 54 million, intended for introduction into the economic - financial circuit of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was also ordered the total seizure of goods, for a total estimated value of about one million euros.