State Police blitz in 24 provinces. The operation, coordinated by the Central Operational Service (SCO), ended yesterday, and has as its objective the contrast to the criminal phenomena connected to the Chinese community present in Italy, in particular illegal immigration, the exploitation of prostitution and work, the counterfeiting of products, the distribution of drugs and the abusive detention of weapons.
An activity with a high impact, with the support of the crime prevention departments, which involved the mobile teams of Ancona, Bergamo, Bologna, Brescia, Cagliari, Catania, Cosenza, Florence, Forlì Cesena, Genoa, Latina, Mantua, Milan, Padua, Parma, Perugia, Pistoia, Prato, Reggio Emilia, Rome, Siena, Treviso, Udine, Verona and Vicenza.
The blitz was preceded by investigations that allowed to identify the people and places connected to the performance of illegal activities, especially production activities and commercial businesses managed by Chinese.
An investigation that highlighted how in Italy they operate several Chinese delinquent groups composed, as a rule, by people united by the origin from the same area or city of the People’s Republic of China. These criminal groups are widespread throughout the national territory, they have contacts between them, they are autonomous, they act in particular in the regions where the presence of Chinese permanently residing in Italy is higher, such as Tuscany. Each group is made up of a variable number of people, in many cases belonging to the same family unit, who commit crimes almost exclusively against compatriots.
The bond of belonging to the group is very narrow, with a deep -rooted concept of revenge that can come to take on the character of the feud: Chinese criminal groups, like traditional mafias, resort, with extreme ease of intimidation or violence to achieve their objectives, practicing the rule of homeerta and trying to predominate the territory where they operate. One of the methods used to establish itself in the area is the use of firearms; The presence of a ‘armed wing’ of Chinese delinquency is documented. A crime in a constant dialogue with other groups of different nationality, including Italian ones, to share business and territories of interest.
Among the illegal activities associated with Chinese crime, Hawala is noted, i.e. the abusive and clandestine exercise of banking activity capable of allowing the black transfer of large sums of money from one continent to another, a system often used by criminal organizations, also different from the Chinese ones, as a means of payment in the context of criminal traffic, including drugs and migrants, as well as for money.
13 people arrested, one of whom for drug dealing, resistance to public officials and port of tools capable of offending, two for exploitation of prostitution, one wanted for aggravated robbery, two sought after theft, three arrested for detention for the purpose of drug dealing and three sought after for cumulation penis1 for attempted extortion. 31 people reported in a state of freedom; identified 1,942; checked 305 commercial establishments, 2 of which subjected to seizure, and 248 vehicles within 52 control places; seized 550 grams of shaboo, equal to about 5,500 doses; high 29 administrative penalties for a total of 73,382 euros; seized 22,825 euros.