Money laundering, diamonds and gold bars to 'wash' dirty money

In the course of the investigations, the international money laundering system used by the organisation in many cases was also reconstructed: in fact, the illicitly obtained proceeds were channelled through a system of empty boxes mainly to Bulgarian territory. From there, the money was sent to further foreign accounts or monetised, only to be physically returned to Italy.

In other cases, the criminal organisation, in order to 'clean up' the illicitly obtained money and reintroduce it into the circuits of the national legal economy, reinvested it in the purchase of diamonds or jewellery or in luxury cars, purchased on Austrian territory and then rented in the Reggio Emilia area, through companies traceable to the organisation.

The investigative activity carried out by the Italian Finance Police allowed them to reconstruct the proceeds from the crime of 'issuing false invoices', obtained by the criminal association, to a value of approximately EUR 4,000,000 and the amount of tax evaded by 69 companies, which turned out to be the main users of the 'false invoices', for an amount of over EUR 6,000,000.

During the investigation, the military discovered how the criminal association had also set up systems to defraud the state welfare system, by illegally requesting and receiving the Naspi unemployment benefit worth approximately EUR 60,000, while they continued their criminal activities and managed their business; some of the 'paper companies' also unduly used public contributions allocated during the pandemic emergency by Covid-19, amounting to approximately EUR 72,000.

"I would like to take this opportunity,' explains the regional commander of the Gdf of Emilia-Romagna, Ivano Maccani, 'to thank all the trade associations, starting with Confindustria, Confcommercio, Coldiretti, Codacons, professional associations, local authorities, trade unions, and universities, which have signed a pact with us to protect the industrial districts that are our oil, our real strength, which the whole world envies us. The nature of the increasingly insidious illegal phenomena and the new investigative scenarios make it illusory to think we can do it alone. Developing an effective system of relations and synergies with those who represent citizens, industrialists, traders, farmers, professionals, and workers, and combining scientific research with investigative strategies, means not only putting down roots in civil society to get to know and deal more effectively with their real problems, realising their expectations of security for the proper conduct of economic and social relations, but also making a qualitative leap forward through innovative investigative tools'.