Maxi scam on recycled cars, 9 precautionary measures

The Caltanissetta police carried out nine precautionary measures, issued by the investigating judge at the request of the prosecutor as part of the Fake Cars operation which dismantled an organization that allegedly recycled cars purchased through scams against financial companies or from theft. Five of the nine suspects are suspected, for various reasons, of having promoted, set up and participated in the criminal association that operated between Campania and Sicily. The alleged crimes are material forgery committed by private individuals in public documents, possession and manufacture of false identification documents, fraud, receiving stolen goods and money laundering. Two of them ended up in prison, three under house arrest. The other four suspects affected by the precautionary measure are subject to the obligation to sign. The investigations were conducted by the mobile team and by the Polstrada; a total of 54 vehicles of illegal origin were identified and resold to unsuspecting citizens, for a total value of over one million euro; the buyers also suffered the seizure of the cars.

The vehicles identified during the investigations are all circulating in various Italian regions and in almost all the Sicilian provinces. In addition to requesting the application of personal precautionary measures, the prosecutors requested the investigating judge to order the preventive seizure of nine cars, for a total value of 200,000 euros. The police headquarters also attached the photographs of two of the suspects: Eugenio Amico and Michele Giarratana in order to identify other offended people who were victims of the scam, considering that the two suspects have repeatedly used false documents to stipulate contracts.

The prosecutor’s investigation originated from some checks carried out by the Caltanissetta Traffic Police in 2020, due to the well-founded suspicion that a group of subjects dedicated to the purchase of vehicles of illegal origin were operating in the territory of the province of Caltanissetta. The reporting by some citizens who are victims of the scam is essential. The investigations made it possible to reconstruct the modus operandi of the suspects. In particular, they would have resold cars that had been stolen or misappropriated to the detriment of leasing companies and whose identification marks, in some cases, had been tampered with, so as to be able to conceal their origin. The suspects would have acted according to more or less complex schemes devised in order to conceal the illicit origin of the motor vehicles marketed, including the replacement of the number plates following the presentation of false reports of loss, the preparation of false notarial deeds or, again, the use of motor vehicles with the chassis number repeated simulating their foreign origin. In the latter case, false documentation certifying ownership of the vehicle was allegedly produced, so as to allow it to circulate on the lawful market. The new identification data entered were those of cars actually existing and circulating in a foreign country, which, in this way, were “cloned”. Subsequently, the same cars would have been “re-nationalized”, simulating – documentally – their importation from abroad. The suspects would have come into play precisely in this second phase, taking care, after having received the cars falsely imported from abroad, to quickly transfer them to unsuspecting buyers at a slightly lower price than the market price.