State Police, "Gasoline" operation

The Trento State Police, coordinated by the local Public Prosecutor's Office, together with the Customs and Monopolies Agency, carried out 10 personal precautionary measures, of which 6 was imprisoned and 4 under house arrest, against Italian 7, residents in provinces of Rome, Latina and Salerno, and 3 foreigners, two of Polish and one Rumanian, for the crime of criminal association aimed at evading excise taxes on fuels used to fuel industrial vehicles. The seizure of two warehouses in Latina where the fuel was stored was also ordered.

During the searches the following were seized: 2 Motorcycles, 5 Trucks, 3 Semi-trailers, 7 Cars, 1 Camper, 55.000 euro in cash, 18 Rolex, 83.000 liters of fuel, 2 oil deposits of which an abusive, 1 villa (abusive), 8 gold rings with precious stones and 2 bracelets always in gold.

In the same context of investigation, the Trento Public Prosecutor delegated the Guardia di Finanza to seize the current accounts of the suspects and the Customs and Monopolies Agency to seize the current accounts of the companies investigated.

The investigative activities resulted from a control in the service area by a traffic police patrol of a Polish semi-trailer, carrying empty tanks.

The delegated investigations carried out by the Mobile Squad and the "Trentino Alto-Adige" Traffic Police Department, coordinated respectively by the Operational Central Service, the Traffic Police Service and the Anti-fraud Department of the Trento Customs Office - Interprovincial Directorate of Bolzano and Trento- , with the collaboration of the Economic-Financial Police Unit of the Guardia di Finanza of Trento and the Mobile Teams of Rome, Latina and Salerno, have discovered the existence of a fraudulent system, capable of transferring fuel (diesel fuel) to Italy from Poland ), evading the payment of excise duties, falsely certifying on the transport documentation that it was not fuel for transport. During the investigations, which lasted about 8 months from September 2018 to May 2019, it was found that tax evasion was around 1 million euros.

The system involved the purchase in Eastern Europe of the fuel then made to enter Italy without the due payment through the creation of false transport documents, which stated that the lubricating product was transiting in Italy with destination Malta and therefore not subject to payment of the consumption tax in the Italian State.

Arriving in Italy the fuel was transported to a temporary depot in Latina at a company attributable to one of the suspects. Subsequently conveyed to the final destination, or another deposit still in the vicinity of the Pontine capital, to be marketed.

At the top of the organization was identified the administrator of the Pontine company specialized in the sale and distribution of fuels where the fuel was deposited.

The man, a resident of Latina but originally from the province of Catanzaro, arrested at dawn today, had organized a chain of fuel smuggling. Another Calabrian, who had been living in Latina for some time, was arrested with him and was in charge of keeping the fuel waiting to be marketed in the temporary warehouse.

The organization also had support in Poland, where it used two intermediaries to purchase and transport fuel in Italy. Even against the latter, there were serious indications of guilt for the crime of fuel smuggling, which is why the European arrest warrant will be required.

During the investigative activities, the figure of another foreigner, a Romanian citizen living in Pomezia, also emerged. The role entrusted to him consisted in collecting orders from the company for the supply of the product, contacting the transporters to check availability, the times and methods of arrival of the energy product in Italy.

In Italy, the network of the criminal organization made use for the most part of Italian subjects, all reached by restrictive measures of personal freedom. In particular, a subject, originally from the province of Salerno, during the investigation emerged as a man in charge of coordinating the transport of the energy product from the temporary warehouse in Latina to that of another company in Ardea (RM) , as well as to draw up the documents to justify the transfer from Poland to Italy and subsequently within the same national territory.

Four other Italian subjects belonging to the organization were joined by the arrest detention order. They were given the task of providing truck drivers with appropriate documentation for transportation from the temporary depot of Latina to that of Ardea (RM), providing if needed, even escort services with the organization's cars.

State Police, "Gasoline" operation