Carabinieri of the Napoli Centro Company recovered four postal parcels containing proceeds from scams committed against elderly people in several northern Italian regions.
The parcels were intercepted in Naples and contained money, gold jewellery and two real firearms, according to ANSA and the official Carabinieri statement on the operation.
What was recovered
The recovered material included 543 grams of gold jewellery and 16,730 euros in cash, which authorities said would be returned to the legitimate owners.
One parcel was presented as a donation to a fictional children's charity. It contained toy guns concealing two real firearms: a .357 Magnum and a .22-calibre pistol.
Where the parcels were sent from
According to the Carabinieri, the four parcels were sent from:
- Savignano sul Panaro, in the province of Modena
- Casazza, in the province of Bergamo
- Borgone Susa, in the province of Turin
- Farini, in the province of Piacenza
Each parcel was sent under a false name.
How investigators describe the scam
Investigators described a repeated method used against elderly victims:
- A telephone call from someone falsely claiming to be a carabiniere.
- The isolation of one spouse from the other during the call.
- The arrival at the home of an accomplice posing as a carabiniere, court technician or similar official.
- The handover by the victims of cash and jewellery.
The Carabinieri said investigators reconstructed a pattern in which a group based in Naples travelled to small towns in Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont and other areas, then mailed the proceeds under false names to evade controls.
Investigation ongoing
The investigation was ongoing at the time of publication, with authorities working to identify the people responsible.
The sources do not identify suspects, do not provide dates or individual victim details for the four underlying scams, and do not give a timetable for restitution of the recovered gold and cash.
