European Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) and Italian police announced on Thursday (November 4th) that 43 people have been arrested across Europe and 5.2 billion euros (5.47 billion dollars) seized following an investigation into a criminal conspiracy involving money laundering and mafia activities to evade value-added tax.
According to Reuters, the investigation involves tax fraud in the trade of IT products and electronic equipment within the European Union, implicating around 400 companies and 200 suspects, with a focus mainly on Italy and several other European countries, including the United Arab Emirates.
The arrested individuals are also facing charges of aiding the Naples-based Camorra and the Sicilian Cosa Nostra in investing profits in value-added tax fraud, as stated by European prosecutors.
Recent investigations in Italy have shown that mafia members are increasingly stepping into the low-risk, discreet white-collar crime field.
European Chief Prosecutor Laura Kövesi stated in a press release, “It has been a while since we started sounding the alarm, warning of the dangerous organized crime groups heavily involved in EU budget fraud.”
She pointed out, “We have now uncovered the first major case of this kind,” emphasizing that there is no distinction between the truly bad and dangerous drug and human traffickers and the ‘just’ corrupt and money-laundering white-collar criminals.
Of those arrested, 34 are in jail, 9 under house arrest, and 4 banned from working. EPPO stated that some of the arrests took place in the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Spain, and Bulgaria.
Italian financial police, Guardia di Finanza, revealed that the implicated companies issued a total of 1.3 billion euros’ worth of fake invoices from 2020 to 2023.
In addition to cash, the financial police discovered real estate complexes in Sicily, the Ligurian Rivieras, Lake Como, and Milan.
EPPO reported that over 160 searches were conducted throughout Italy, with further searches and seizures in Spain, Luxembourg, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates.
Earlier this year, Italian customs officials seized over six tons of chemical ‘precursors’ from China on July 1, capable of producing drugs valued at 6.3 billion euros (6.78 billion dollars), enough to manufacture over 63 million ecstasy pills, leading to a troubling situation in the European market.
As part of a two-year investigation coordinated with Eurojust, two Chinese citizens were arrested in the Netherlands, and an Italian businessman in Milan was also under investigation, as stated in a previous statement by Italian police.
Italian Economic Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti took to his social media account on Thursday to congratulate the police and prosecutors on their further success in the case.