Edited by Sergio Silvestri

Money laundering resulting from international drug trafficking. On this charge, officers from the Trento Provincial Command of the Guardia di Finanza arrested 42 people and seized over €18,5 million. The operation was conducted with the assistance of officials from the Europol agency. The Trento District Prosecutor's Office, with the assistance of a deputy prosecutor from the National Anti-Mafia and Counterterrorism Directorate, in collaboration with the Italian representative of Eurojust, was entrusted with the investigation.

A statement from the Guardia di Finanza emphasizes that a total of 47 individuals were involved, 26 of whom were foreign nationals (from Colombia, Morocco, Albania, and Syria). They are believed, "without prejudice to the principle of presumption of innocence," to be responsible for participating in a complex, cross-border criminal conspiracy involving Sicilian and Calabrian organized crime groups, which benefited South American cartels.

The money laundering methodology can be summarized as follows: the Colombian and Mexican cartels sold cocaine on credit to criminal organizations active in Italy, who, after dealing, collected cash that was then handed over to money collectors.

These, through a “money pick up” operation, transferred the sums to the “money mules” (“collectors”).

After being deposited into bank accounts, the money was transferred (in dollars) to companies identified by the cartel's support network, located in various countries around the world: the United States, China, Hong Kong, and Turkey. The companies operated in the marketing of electronic products (especially phones) and luxury goods (such as watches).

These companies then shipped the products to South American customers, who paid the price (in pesos) directly to the network of brokers supporting the cartels, thus allowing the cartels, by handing over the funds to the criminal syndicates, to obtain the laundered money in local currency. Investigators acquired Sky ECC and Encrochat crypto chats, used by the individuals under investigation for cash withdrawal messages.

The investigative activity began in 2019 and made use of the international judicial cooperation tools of 27 foreign countries (including the United States, France, Germany, Spain, and Colombia) and international police cooperation channels, activated both by the personnel of Homeland Security Investigations and through the activities of the experts and liaison officers abroad of the Guardia di Finanza, as well as the EFECC (European Financial and Economic Crime Centre) Office of Europol.

The Guardia di Finanza also highlighted the investigative synergies with prosecutors from the Bogotá and Miami prosecutors' offices. The investigation's unique feature, investigators explain, was the use of undercover investigations: an undercover agent from the Guardia di Finanza intervened not on the movement of narcotics, but on that of money. Inspired by the teachings of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino of following the money to defeat organized crime, the Guardia di Finanza's statement concludes, the measures were implemented just days after the anniversary of the Capaci massacre, May 23.

SOURCE: https://www.gdf.gov.it/it