A huge scam worth millions has been discovered, and the Abruzzo area is also involved. What it’s really about
The operation called “Transhumance” brought to light one of the largest frauds against the European Union in recent years. The Pescara Financial Police, under the direction and coordination of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of the L’Aquila Prosecutor’s Office, has concluded the investigation into a complex fraudulent system which allegedly stole millions of euros in funds intended for the agricultural sector.
An investigation extended to the whole of Italy. The investigations revealed that as many as 75 individuals and entities, distributed in various Italian regions including Abruzzo, Puglia, Trentino Alto Adige, Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto, Liguria, Emilia Romagna, Lazio and Campania were involved in this illicit business . The investigators’ suspicion is that behind this vast operation there is also the hand of the so-called “Foggia mafia”, given the participation of individuals linked to criminal organizations in the Gargano.
The methods of the scam. According to what emerged from the investigations of the “Transhumance” operation, the criminal association would have implemented a sophisticated fraudulent mechanism since 2014. The group would have pretended to possess the necessary requirements to obtain land and related CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) titles, concessions normally reserved for new young agricultural entrepreneurs through the National Title Reserve.
Complicity and Fraud
The investigators discovered how the so-called new fictitious agricultural businesses were in reality colluding with agricultural cooperative societies or temporary business associations created specifically to grab thousands of hectares of land. These concessions were put out to tender by the Municipalities for civic use but ended up in the hands of fraudsters thanks to counterfeit documentation or false declarations.
The fraud budget. The frauds discovered by the Financial Police amount to approximately 5 million euros. The subjects involved are now accused in various capacities of self-laundering, reuse of illicit proceeds deriving from criminal activities carried out over time as well as receiving stolen goods and aggravated fraud against the Italian and European State for the undue obtaining of public funds.
These findings shed new light on the vulnerabilities of the public provision system in the European agricultural sector and raise questions about the need to strengthen controls to prevent similar episodes in the future. The geographic vastness of the operation demonstrates how such fraudulent schemes can become deeply rooted in economic structures located in different parts of the country.
