the GdF closes the circle with two international arrests
The circle of“Free Credits” operation which last January had seen the execution of 35 precautionary measures and over 80 searches by the men of the Guardia di Finanza of Rimini in Emilia Romagna and, at the same time, in Abruzzo, Basilicata, Campania, Lazio, Lombardy, Marche, Puglia, Sicily, Tuscany, Trentino and Veneto. The articulated criminal association was made up of 56 associates and 22 nomineesunder investigation on charges of defrauding the Italian state for 440 million euros marketing false tax credits, the so-called “bonuses”, introduced among the post Covid support measures.
Solo two suspects managed to escape: deemed the head of the Apulian branch of the organization e an accountant who were found in South America at the time of the arrests and, having heard of the intervention of the police, never returned to Italy. But the investigators and the police have continued to monitor their every move and, thanks to the International Police Cooperation Service, they have activated local police forces for tracing and arrest.
The accountant was arrested at Medellin airport, in Colombia, where he was temporarily on his way, and is currently being held in Bogota prisons pending extradition procedures. The “Re of bonuses” was instead a Santo Domingo, where he was stopped after a careful shadowing carried out by the Dominican police: he had with him numerous mobile phones, various telephone cards of different nationalities and over ten credit cards and cash including euros, dollars, Colombian and Dominican pesos for about 6 thousand euros . For him, the delivery procedures to the Italian authorities were faster: the Dominican Republic expelled him and put him on a plane to Italy and he is already in the Rimini prisonavailable to the judicial authorities.