Seventeen people arrested, in prison and under house arrest, in the maxi operation of the Carabinieri of the Provincial Command of Rome, coordinated by the deputy prosecutor Giovanni Conzo, which brought to light a criminal association dedicated to “scams” and “extortion” against the elderly . The arrests – 7 in prison and 10 under house arrest – were carried out in the province of Naples where the operational base was located. As a confirmation, during the investigation, the military also carried out 10 arrests, in flagrante delicto, for scams committed in Rome against the elderly, with the simultaneous recovery and return of the stolen goods.
The investigations of the Carabinieri of the Operational Unit of the Compagnia di Roma Trionfale would have revealed the existence of a criminal association based in Naples and headed by members of a specific family, dedicated to the commission of an indeterminate series of crimes (mostly scams and sometimes extortion) against elderly people living in Rome and Lazio, but also in other Italian regions. There were approximately 80 episodes, committed in the provinces of Rome, Naples, Latina and Viterbo, in the period between 13 September 2022 and 20 March 2023.
Posing as a postal worker, insurer, lawyer or policeman, the “telephone operator” said that a family member had to pay off a debt to collect a package or that he had caused a road accident, that the insurance had expired and that, to “fix” things , it was necessary to hand over money or jewelry. An accomplice would later pick them up from the victims’ homes, and only hours later, speaking with the son or grandson in question, would they discover the scam.
Various batteries, made up of two people, left Naples every day with rented cars. The victims were chosen randomly through searches done on the internet or on the white pages, contacted by “telephone operators” and then reached by “couriers”. During the searches, which are still ongoing, the police also found an instruction manual with a detailed description of the things that the telephone operator had to say to the victims to carry out the scams as well as cash, hundreds of telephone cards, dozens of mobile phones and a large quantity of jewels.
