Guardia di Finanza

Camorra, online scams to fill Casalesi coffers, two arrests

Uncovered an illegal system, set up by a criminal organisation operating between Italia and Spain, aimed at 'emptying' the bank accounts of unsuspecting individuals through abusive access to computer systems and the theft of sensitive data by e-mail (phishing), by sending sms messages (smishing) and by telephone calls (vishing)

by Rome Editorial Staff

10 March 2026

I militari del Nucleo Speciale Polizia Valutaria della Guardia di Finanza, con il supporto dei Finanzieri del Comando Provinciale di Caserta e Milano, hanno eseguito un’ordinanza applicativa di misura cautelare in carcere nei confronti di due persone, indagate per i reati di associazione per delinquere e autoriciclaggio con l’aggravante di agevolare il clan dei Casalesi

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

Euro 800,000 subtracted
The modalities of the scam
Provided to members of the Casalesi clan
The two main suspects are Caserta entrepreneurs

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Two people were arrested by the Naples Finance Police for the crimes of criminal conspiracy and self-laundering with the aggravating circumstance of facilitating the Casalesi clan. The arrests were carried out with the support of the Financial Police of the Provincial Command of Caserta and Milan. The investigation, coordinated by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Naples, led to the identification of a complex illegal system, set up by a criminal organisation operating between Italy and Spain, aimed at 'emptying' the current accounts of unsuspecting individuals through abusive access to computer systems and the theft of sensitive data by e-mail (phishing), by sending sms (smishing) and by telephone communication (vishing).

Euro 800,000 subtracted

In detail, the investigations, carried out also by activating international police cooperation channels, involved 24 subjects and focused on 38 fraud episodes perpetrated against as many Italian victims from whom approximately EUR 800,000 were allegedly embezzled, sums that flowed - at least in part - into the coffers of the Casalesi clan.

The modalities of the scam

In particular, the fraud was carried out in various ways. A first and most common scheme consisted in sending the victim a text message or an e-mail, coming - only apparently - from the bank where the person had opened a current account, informing him of the execution of credit transfers or other debit instructions. Subsequently, the fraudster, pretending to be a bank employee in charge of the anti-fraud system, induced the victim to make an instantaneous transfer to another current account, traceable to the criminal association.

A second scheme consisted in fraudulently activating a copy of the telephone SIM card in use by the victim and associated with the current account. In this way, it was possible to access home banking and, once the temporary password (OTP code) had been received by SMS, to transfer with instant transfers the sums existing on the current accounts to bank accounts traceable to the organisation.

Provided to members of the Casalesi clan

The funds thus received would have been quickly sent to other current accounts, including foreign ones, withdrawn 'for cash' and delivered, for the most part, to members of the Casalesi clan. In some circumstances, then, the illicit proceeds would also have been used to purchase virtual currencies, considered a 'safe' investment in view of the objective difficulty of identifying the owners of the relevant virtual wallets (cryptowallets).

The two main suspects are entrepreneurs from Caserta

In the light of the investigative results and in compliance with the request made by this Office, the Gip of the Court of Naples ordered that the two main suspects, entrepreneurs from Caserta operating in the car trade sector and domiciled between Italia and Spain, be placed under arrest. However, for the other suspects, the Gip considered that there was sufficient evidence to prove that they had been part of a criminal association aimed at computer fraud, money laundering and self-laundering, with the aggravating circumstance, for six of them, of the purpose of facilitating the Casalesi clan.

In particular, a large part of the illicit proceeds, amounting to approximately 40%, was handed over, in cash, to members of the Camorra clan in order to finance its operations and provide for the maintenance of several families of inmates of the clan itself, strengthening the Camorra presence in the territory.

To obtain further evidence, 21 searches were carried out at homes and businesses located in the provinces of Naples, Caserta, Modena, Benevento, Potenza and Isernia.