Italian finance police on
Thursday confiscated over 23 million blank CDs and DVDs and
other assets following investigations into a piracy ring
allegedly involving an important media storage company and the
Campania-based Camorra mafia.
Sixteen people were arrested in the operation, including
several former or current top managers of the Italian branch of
Japanese storage-media company Verbatim.
Investigators claim the organisation used a close network
of intermediaries to import blank CDs and DVDs into Italy
without paying taxes thanks to a false triangulation involving
societies located in tax havens or other EU states.
The CDs and DVDs were allegedly destined partly for the
legal market and partly to support audio-video piracy activities
of the Neapolitan Camorra.
Police carried out searches in Tuscany, Campania, Lazio,
Lombardy and Puglia as part of the probe.
Dozens of current accounts and other financial assets,
vehicles, a yacht and properties were also confiscated.
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