Three members of the police force – a financier, a policeman and a carabiniere – allegedly refueled their private cars with agricultural fuel supplied by two entrepreneurs, owners of a depot in the BAT.
This is what emerged at the conclusion of an investigation conducted by the Barletta financial police, supported by the Andria Police Headquarters and the Trani Carabinieri, which led to the house arrest of the two entrepreneurs and the temporary ban from public office for 6 months for the three members of the police force. The charges are corruption and evasion of excise duty assessment.
The three law enforcement officers, in particular, instead of reporting the crimes committed by the two entrepreneurs, allegedly refueled their vehicles with fuel with reduced excise duty even though they were not entitled to it.
The investigation would also involve other public officials, who in one case would have also refueled a boat, against whom the Judge for preliminary investigations of Trani did not deem it necessary to issue precautionary measures.
The investigation revealed that the entrepreneurs and public officials communicated with each other using cryptic language. One of the owners of the warehouse communicated, by telephone, that “I should have some red wine on Friday”, referring to fuel. The public official replied: “I’ll come and have a nice drink then”.
