Carabinieri in the Naples metropolitan area have discovered three electronic identity cards with their microchips removed within a few days.
The cards appeared intact at first glance but had been deprived of their electronic components with a precise cut, according to Il Mattino.
The latest case was identified by the Carabinieri station in Acerra during a territorial-control operation. A man found in possession of an Italian electronic identity card, or CIE, from which the microchip had been removed was reported to the judicial authorities.
Removing the chip materially alters the document and can make it unusable for electronic checks. Investigators are considering whether removed chips could be reused to create more convincing counterfeit identities.
What remains unclear is whether the three cases are connected. There is currently no confirmation that the removed chips were sold or used to produce forged documents, nor has it been established who removed the chips or whether a wider criminal network is involved.
