Provincial Command of Turin – Ivrea (To)04/16/2024 08:16
The Carabinieri of the Company Command of Ivrea with the help of soldiers from Chivasso, Venaria Reale, Vercelli, personnel of the SIO, of the 1st Piedmont Regiment and of the Dog Carabinieri of Volpiano, coordinated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Ivrea, carried out an order for the application of precautionary measures against six people, considered seriously suspected of the crime of “receiving stolen goods”. The investigation, conventionally called “MIDA” (Greek god of gold), conducted from February to September 2023, made it possible to put an end to a complex system of receiving significant quantities of gold derived from illicit activities. The key figure on which all the activity revolves is an 86-year-old man, already known to the police for his criminal past.
The sprightly old man has set up a thriving market in stolen gold with the complicity of a large group of people with specific criminal backgrounds.
The military, during observation services, ascertained that the 86-year-old frequently went to the nomadic camps of Ivrea, Chivasso and Verolengo to evaluate, qualify and quantify the gold jewelery that was shown to him. Once he had acquired the precious items, he proceeded to receive them from compliant gold buyers in the province of Turin.
The operations carried out by the Carabinieri made it possible to find in the house of the “God of gold”, a precision scale, a gold inspection stone, a magnifying glass and two vials of reagent acid for gold, while in the 5 two-way radios were found in the home of another suspect.
The measures are part of a wide-ranging investigative activity which led the military to carry out numerous home searches of individuals presumably involved in the illicit activity. During the operations, at the homes of 3 other subjects, another 5 two-way radios were found, thirty thousand seven hundred euros in cash, gold inspection stones, several vials of reagent acid for gold, a ring sizer, a precision scale, a money counting machine, various gold jewelery with a total weight of 33 grams, a fake gas technician’s tag and some adhesive letters for car license plates. Furthermore, 566 grams of gold were recovered.
Part of the proceeds from a robbery against an elderly woman which took place in Novara in April 2023, where the victim was deceived with the so-called “fake Carabiniere” method and the other part proceeds from a home burglary carried out in the same month in Pavia. The activity also made it possible to ascertain how two of the suspects are responsible for a theft against an elderly lady from Ivrea, which occurred in the first days of March 2023, where the criminals posing as gas and fake workers Carabiniere stole various gold jewellery.
The 86-year-old ringleader was subjected to house arrest, another five accomplices were subjected to the obligation to remain at home and three others were reported in a state of freedom for “receiving stolen goods”. The measures against the cited subjects were issued during the preliminary investigations and, therefore, the presumption of not guilt applies.
press release – source: https://www.carabinieri.it/in-vostro-aiuto/informazioni/comunicati-stampa/associazione-mida-smantellato-un-articolato-sistema-per-la-ricettazione-di-oro-un -arrest-five-residence-obligations
Tags: Ivrea Operation Midas complex system receiving gold dismantled arrest residence obligations
