The military operation also concerned Tuscany Financial Police of Turin a fight against counterfeiting in the automotive sector, during which approximately 500 thousand car spare parts bearing counterfeit effigies of the most well-known national and international car manufacturers (Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Citroen, Opel, Peugeot, Dacia, Skoda, Ford, Volkswagen, Toyota, Nissan, Renault, Seat, Iveco, Chevrolet), as well as numerous machinery and molds used for illicit production.
The investigations, carried out by the Economic-Financial Police Unit of Turin under the coordination of the prosecutor’s office of the capital, which were initially conducted through in-depth analysis of the databases available to the Corps as well as extensive surveillance and observation activities, made it possible to rebuild the entire production and commercial chain of fakesallowing us to identify, in addition to the companies producing spare parts, numerous companies dedicated to distributing them, including through e-commerce platforms.
In this context, also with the support of other departments of the body, multiple searches were carried out throughout the national territory at the disposal of the prosecuting judicial authority, in particular in Piedmont, Campania, Calabria, Puglia, Basilicata, Lombardy and Tuscanyrelating not only to the Piedmontese production plants but also to all the wholesalers and retailers identified.
The spare parts subject to the seizures were found to be attributable to car components, such as wheel covers, hub caps, emblems, ornamental elements and bodywork tuningreproducing – without the possession of any license/authorization – the trademarks falling within the scope of the industrial property law of the aforementioned car manufacturers.
In particular, the investigations made it possible to identify and dismantle the initial link in the illicit supply chain: the fake car parts were produced in industrial warehouses located in the province of Turinwithin which 13 production lines were discovered, fully operational and professional, made up of various machinery for moulding, pressing, painting, silk-screen printing and pad printing of the products made.
These production lines were therefore subjected to preventive seizure, also in order to prevent the continuation of work, placing the precautionary restriction on 28 industrial machinery and 449 molds used to reproduce the brands of the aforementioned car manufacturers.
During the search operations in the factories, the soldiers of the Economic-Financial Police Unit of Turin also identified a hidden storage area used by one of the companies involved, found in the warehouses of a logistics company (unrelated to the criminal charges) , where over 700 square meters of space had been rented to store the counterfeit spare parts produced as well as the wheel covers intended for illicit branding.
The operation, as a whole, therefore made it possible to identify and seize around 500 million counterfeit spare parts and the entire production lines of the 2 Turin factories (putting an end to illicit manufacturing), for a commercial value estimated at over 8 million of Euro.
In total, there are 20 suspects for the crimes being prosecutedwho – without prejudice to the presumption of innocence – will have to answer before the judicial authority, in competition, for the crimes of manufacture and trade of counterfeit products, with the aggravating circumstance of having committed them in a systematic manner and through the setting up of means and organized activities, and of receiving stolen goods.
Finally, the Finance Department highlights how the trade in counterfeit car parts, also facilitated by the development of the online market, continues to confirm itself as a profitable business for illegal operators, due to the wide margin between production and sales prices.
