1.45pm – Since the first light of dawn this morning, the Flying Squad of the Pistoia Police Headquarters and the Economic-Financial Police Unit of the Pistoia Financial Police have been executing an application order precautionary measures issued by the GIP of the local Court at the request of the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Pistoia against 12 subjects, of which 9 subjected to the measure of Precautionary Custody in Prison and 3 to the measure of House Arrest with Electronic Bracelet.
The suspects, of Italian and Chinese nationality, are accused in various capacities of the crimes of continued extortion in competition, criminal conspiracy aimed at the abusive exercise of the collection of games and bets, illegal exercise of gaming and betting activities, forgery in public deed, False certifications in deeds intended for the AG, Trafficking and Possession of narcotic substances, Fraudulent evasion of tax payments and Issuance of invoices for non-existent operations.
With the same provision, the investigating judge ordered the preventive seizure of some of the suspects with the aim of confiscating sums of money – or movable and immovable property of equivalent value – for a total value of approximately 1,184,000 euros. The preventive seizure was also ordered against 3 gaming and betting halls, 5 companies and 1 car.
Together with the restrictive measures, local, home and personal searches were carried out, which also took place with the operational assistance of the Central Unit of the Gaming and Betting Police of the Central Operational Service (SCO) of the Central Anti-Crime Directorate and the Technical Means Group of the Central Service Organized Crime Investigation (SCICO) of Rome.
The precautionary measures represent the acceptance of the evidentiary framework put forward by the Pistoia Flying Squad and the Pistoia Criminal Police Section – Aliquota Guardia di Finanza, following a detailed investigative activity, which lasted over a year, which made it possible to reconstruct the existence of a stubborn extortion phenomenon and of a real “system” of illegal and clandestine betting. These bets, it has been ascertained, take place both online on special cloned sites and in physical locations consisting of slot halls located in the municipality of Prato, nominally attributable to Chinese citizens but in fact in the hands of two of the subjects subjected to precautionary measures, who have full access to it as real owners, making use of various collaborators.
During the aforementioned investigative activity, conduct also emerged, ascertained and in-depth by the Judicial Police Section – Guardia di Finanza branch and by the Economic and Financial Police Unit of Pistoia, which fall within a framework of repeated tax frauds conceived and managed by one of the suspects , Chinese citizen, in collaboration with several other subjects connected to him, based on the fictitious registration of the ownership of companies to other people, on the issuing of false invoices and on the transfer of large sums of money to China, in order to fraudulently avoid payment of the taxes due, with reference to the entrepreneurial activities gradually acquired by him also through the extortion practices subject to the investigations.
The suspects were associated with the prisons of Prato, Pistoia and Pisa awaiting the interrogation of the GIP
The measurements were carried out with the operational assistance of the Mobile Teams of Prato, Rome, Latina, Lucca and Massa Carrara. Approximately 90 police officers are employed to carry out the measure, with the operational assistance of the Crime Prevention Departments, the canine unit of Florence, as well as the specialists of the Scientific Police Service of Rome, experts in the use of high-tech equipment such as ground penetrating radar, sophisticated equipment that scans every wall, looking for hidden spaces or hidden cavities.
The Pistoia Economic and Financial Police Unit, in this executive phase which involved around 40 soldiers from the Corps, made use of the invaluable assistance, as well as of the aforementioned Technical Means Group of the Central Organized Crime Investigation Service (SCICO) of Rome, equipped with cutting-edge equipment for the search for sums of money and/or valuables hidden in walls or cavities, staff from the Pistoia Group, the 2nd Florence Metropolitan Operations Unit and the Casalpusterlengo Tenenza, as well as a canine unit trained in the search for currency ( “cash dog”) of the 1st Florence Metropolitan Operations Unit.
Further details in the press conference that the Public Prosecutor of Pistoia will hold, together with the Acting Public Prosecutor of Prato, in the presence of the provincial leaders of the State Police and the Financial Police, at the offices of the Pistoia Police Headquarters, this afternoon at 4:00 pm.
AG clearance: granted
press release Guardia di Finanza Provincial Command Pistoia
Tags: Pistoia Endgame operation precautionary measures carried
