Joint press release by the Düsseldorf public prosecutor's office and the NRW State Office of Criminal Investigation
Under the direction of the Central and Contact Point for the Prosecution of Organized Crime in North Rhine-Westphalia (ZeOS NRW), which is based at the Düsseldorf public prosecutor's office, the State Criminal Police Office of North Rhine-Westphalia (LKA NRW), Division 1, Department 11, has been leading the "Alleanza" and "Blanko" investigation commissions since March 2019 with the aim of breaking up structures of Italian organized counterfeit money crime.
The investigation is directed against around 80 suspects in Germany and other European countries and is supported by funding from the European Commission (ONnet) due to its importance for criminal policy.
The focus of the proceedings is a 56-year-old Italian national from the Naples area who lives in Düsseldorf. He is strongly suspected of having trafficked incriminated goods of all kinds (including counterfeit money, cocaine, marijuana, vehicles and forged official documents) in a highly professional manner and of having committed fraud. For parts of his "business" - in particular the trade in counterfeit money, stolen or fraudulently obtained vehicles and forged documents - the main suspect had, according to the current state of the investigation, joined forces with two suspects residing in Naples. They procured the incriminated goods and had them transported to Germany, while the main suspect organized the resales as a "distribution point for Germany". According to the current state of knowledge, the persons residing in Naples have links to the Neapolitan mafia (Camorra).
In the course of the proceedings, several incriminated vehicles, false passports, forged driving licenses, incriminated vehicle registration documents, significant quantities of cocaine, a firearm and around EUR 160,000 of very high-quality counterfeit money were seized. Just six months after the first issue of the new 100 euro bill series by the European Central Bank in May 2019, the first counterfeit 100 euro bill of this series in the whole of Europe was seized as part of the investigations by EK Alleanza. This shows the high level of professionalism of organized counterfeiting from the Naples area. The investigations also led to the identification of other suspects in Italy who are also associated with the Camorra. The incriminated vehicles were sold to customers in France and Belgium, among others, who are attributed to organized crime. Some of the vehicles were also registered with the road traffic authorities in NRW using forged Italian documents. In the course of the investigation, there was also suspicion of gang-related tax evasion against buyers of the vehicles resold by the 56-year-old. The investigations are being conducted in close cooperation with the task force set up at the NRW State Criminal Police Office, consisting of the police, tax investigation department and the judiciary.
In Naples, ZeOS NRW and the LKA NRW are working together with the public prosecutor's office in Naples and the Guardia di Finanza. Europol supported the joint investigations during the course of the proceedings with technical expertise and by controlling and evaluating information.
On 20.05.2021, simultaneous executive measures coordinated with the Italian partners were carried out in North Rhine-Westphalia and Naples. In NRW, 18 properties were searched in Düsseldorf, Lüdenscheid, Dormagen, Kaarst, Neuss, Bonn and Mönchengladbach. Police officers from the LKA NRW were involved in the searches in Naples.
Arrest
Ratingen: 62-year-old Italian national born in Sicily
Düsseldorf: 56-year-old Italian national
Düsseldorf: 62-year-old German national
Düsseldorf: 50-year-old Italian citizen from Naples and searched
During the searches, 45,000 euros were secured, numerous IT assets and accounting documents were seized, which still have to be evaluated.
The investigation is ongoing.
Düsseldorf public prosecutor's office
ZeOS, Press Office, pressestelle [at] sta-duesseldorf.nrw.de (pressestelle[at]sta-duesseldorf[dot]nrw[dot]de) 0211 / 6025-2527