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☆ Police in France and Italy bust gang that sold bottles of fake vintage wine for $16,000 apiece
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-16 | by ( Jack Guy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Six people have been arrested as part of an investigation into a wine fraud ring that allegedly sold fake French wine for up to €15,000 ($16,300) per bottle. Police in Italy searched 14 properties and seized large amounts of wine, wine bottles, counterfeit stickers from top French vineyards and machines used to recap bottles, according to a statement from European law enforcement agency Europol, published Tuesday. “The surge in demand for fine wine in the 21st century… has motivated fraudsters,” George told CNN. “Better training and better knowledge of what bottles of fine wine – and especially old bottles of fine wine – really look like would be useful,” said George. Bolgheri Sassicaia red wine comes from an area on the coast of Tuscany and has become one of Italy’s best-known fine wines since it appeared on the market in the 1970s.

Persons: ” Europol, Europol, Prosecutors, Stuart George, ” George, ” Fraudsters, ”, George, “, Petrus, Finanza Organizations: CNN, Police, Russian, French Gendarmerie, Swiss Federal Police, Arden Fine Wines, Reuters, Guardia Locations: Italy, Italian, Russian, French, Dijon, London, Tuscany, Sicily, Milan, Bulgaria

☆ China-made military drones similar to the MQ-9 Reaper were disguised as wind turbines in shipments to Libya: Italian officials
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-05 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Read previewItaly has seized parts for two combat drones disguised as wind turbines in containers en route from China to Libya, customs and maritime authorities said on Tuesday. AdvertisementFootage of Italian authorities intercepting components of two Chinese Wing Loong II UAVs disguised as wind turbines that were heading to Libya. AdvertisementItalian officials stand next to drone parts disguised as wind turbines. Guardia di FinanzaAs a long-endurance and remotely controlled weapons platform, the Wing Loong-2 is often compared to the US-made MQ-9 Reaper, though its maximum speed and altitude are inferior to the latter. AdvertisementThe UN report and a BBC investigation found that Wing Loong-2 drones were likely supplied by the United Arab Emirates, which has long been accused of backing Haftar.

Persons: —, Gioia Tauro, Loong, ALY7IBwRaA, WeKoW0i7Rs, Khalifa Haftar, Haftar's, Muammar, he's Organizations: Service, Financial Police, Business, Investigators, MSC Arina, MSC Apolline, Libyan, Financial Guard, Guardia, Times, Guard, United Nations, Libyan National Army, UN, United Arab Emirates Locations: Italy, China, Libya, London, Benghazi, Beijing, Muammar Gaddafi's, Russia, Moscow, Tripoli, Canada

☆ After U.S. fentanyl deal, China warns against selling chemicals used in narcotics
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

An undated handout picture released by Guardia di Finanza shows tools that were seized as a part of an operation against fentanyl trafficking from China to U.S., in Piacenza, Italy. In a circular issued on Thursday, the office of the China National Narcotics Control Commission also cautioned against the risk of running into the "long-arm jurisdiction" of foreign law enforcement agencies. The United States has long sought China's cooperation to stop an illicit flow of precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl, which is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and is increasingly mixed with other drugs, often with lethal results. Under the agreement, China will go directly after specific chemical companies that make fentanyl precursors, a senior U.S. official said. U.S. officials say small chemical businesses in China make precursor chemicals that are shipped to Mexico to produce illicit fentanyl.

Persons: Xi Jinping, Joe Biden, Ryan Woo, Miral Organizations: Guardia, Finanza, REUTERS Acquire, Rights, China National Narcotics Control, United, Thomson Locations: China, U.S, Piacenza, Italy, Rights BEIJING, United States, San Francisco, Mexico

☆ Italy arrests six in crackdown on fentanyl smuggling from China to U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Emilio Parodi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] An undated handout picture released by Guardia di Finanza shows banknotes that were seized as a part of an operation against fentanyl trafficking from China to U.S., in Piacenza, Italy. Guardia di Finanza Press Office/Handout via REUTERS Acquire Licensing RightsMILAN, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Italian police have arrested six people in a crackdown on a network that allegedly played go-between for fentanyl trafficking from China to the United States, Guardia di Finanza police and prosecutors in the northern city of Piacenza said on Wednesday. Washington is hoping to secure more cooperation from Beijing in combating production of the potent synthetic opioid fentanyl, a scourge in the United States, when President Joe Biden meets Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday. Among those arrested in Italy is the alleged head of the network, a 51-year-old Italian man suspected of buying fentanyl from China over the past three years. He sold it on to buyers in the United States, and in one case in Mexico, the chief prosecutor said.

Persons: Grazia Pradella, Joe Biden, Xi Jinping, Emilio Parodi, Keith Weir Organizations: Guardia, Finanza, REUTERS Acquire, U.S . Drug Enforcement Administration, Reuters, U.S, U.S . Centers for Disease Control, Prevention, Police, Thomson Locations: China, U.S, Piacenza, Italy, United States, Guardia, Washington, Beijing, Mexico, Rome, Ukrainian, Switzerland, Eastern Europe, bitcoin

☆ Booking.com settles Italian tax dispute with 94-million euro payment
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( Emilio Parodi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsMILAN, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Travel website Booking.com (BKNG.O) has agreed to pay about 94 million euros ($100.25 million) to settle a tax dispute in Italy, Genoa prosecutors said on Friday. Italy's Guardia di Finanza tax police alleged in June 2021 that Booking.com evaded 153 million euros of value added tax (VAT) in connection with holiday rentals from 2013 to 2019. Last November, Dutch magistrates accepted a European investigation order (OIE) sent by Italy allowing Italian prosecutors to question two former Booking.com chief financial officers as part of the investigation. Private accommodation sites which are not professionally run often have no VAT number, and Italian tax authorities believe the online travel agency should in such cases act as a withholding agent, collecting tax. In another similar case involving a company's responsibility to collect tax on behalf of tax authorities, an Italian judge on Monday seized 780 million euros from short-term rentals platform Airbnb (ABNB.O).

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Booking.com, Italy's, Toby Sterling, Alvise Armellini, Aurora Ellis Organizations: REUTERS, Apple, Facebook, Italian Revenue Agency, Prosecutors, U.S ., Holdings, Union, Thomson Locations: Italy, Genoa, Booking.com, Netherlands, Friday's, Italian, Delaware, Amsterdam

☆ Italy to pass tougher measures to deter migrant arrivals
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-18 | by ( Angelo Amante | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] A man disembarked from Guardia di Finanza vessel is taken away on a stretcher after being rescued at sea, on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, Italy, September 18, 2023. Under Italian law, migrants facing repatriation can be held if they cannot be immediately expelled. More than 127,000 migrants have arrived in Italy so far this year, according to government data, almost double the figure for the same period of 2022. Officials say a majority of migrants head to Italy for economic reasons and are therefore not eligible for asylum. ($1 = 0.9379 euros)Reporting by Angelo Amante; Editing by Crispian Balmer and Christina FincherOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Yara, Giorgia Meloni, Meloni, Ursula von der Leyen, Von der Leyen, Angelo Amante, Crispian Balmer, Christina Fincher Organizations: Guardia, REUTERS, Rights, European, Thomson Locations: Guardia di, Lampedusa, Italy, Rome, Brussels

☆ Italian police net record 5-tonne cocaine haul off Sicilian coast
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

ROME, July 21 (Reuters) - Italian authorities have seized a record 5.3 tonne cocaine haul being transferred between ships off the southern coast of Sicily, police said on Friday. The consignment had an estimated value of 850 million euros ($946 million) and five people have been arrested, the Guardia di Finanza said in a statement. They stopped the trawler and found large quantities of drugs in a hidden compartment behind some panelling on the vessel. In April, Italian police had found almost 2 tonnes of cocaine floating at sea off eastern Sicily which they believe had been left by a cargo ship for collection. ($1 = 0.8986 euros)Writing by Keith Weir; Editing by Alex RichardsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Finanza, Renato Schifani, Keith Weir, Alex Richardson Organizations: Police, Thomson Locations: Sicily, South America, Albanian

☆ Italy's Meta tax review gets underway in potential test case for tech sector
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-05 | by ( Emilio Parodi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

That has prompted a dialogue between Meta and the Italian tax agency -- the assessment phase -- which will end this year either with the company's acceptance of payment or with the start of tax litigation. The assessment, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter, involves the highest ranking Italian tax officials because of the sensitivity of the issue. Meta said it takes its tax obligations seriously, pays all tax required in the countries where it operates and will fully cooperate with the Italian authorities. Italy's tax police and revenue agency calculated a model under which Meta would have had to pay around 220 million euros of sales tax in the country in 2021. The EPPO is awaiting the outcome of the Italian case before it decides whether to pursue similar action in other European Union states, a source with knowledge of the matter had said.

Persons: Italy's Guardia, Meta, Sergio Sirabella, Emilio Parodi, Keith Weir, Devika Organizations: MILAN, Facebook, Meta, Italy's, European Public Prosecutor's, Reuters, Economic Financial Police School, Union, Thomson Locations: Italy, U.S, Milan

Gucci is part of French luxury goods group Kering (PRTP.PA). The European Commission said on Tuesday that antitrust regulators had raided companies in the fashion sector in several EU countries. The Commission, which acts as the competition enforcer in the 27-country EU, did not name the companies or the countries, in line with its policy. The European Commission declined to comment on Wednesday. Companies found guilty of breaching EU rules face fines of as much as 10% of their global turnover.

MILAN/BRUSSELS, April 19 (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators and Italian tax police inspected a facility of luxury goods company Gucci as part of a European Union investigation spanning several countries and companies, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday. Gucci is part of French luxury goods group Kering (PRTP.PA). The second source said other fashion companies outside the Kering group had been targeted by similar inspections. The European Commission said on Tuesday that antitrust regulators had raided companies in the fashion sector in several EU countries. The European Commission declined to comment on Wednesday.

☆ Italian prosecutors probe response to migrant tragedy
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Angelo Amante | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The same request has been made to the Coast Guard, Italian media reported. There was no immediate comment from the Coast Guard or the prosecutors. Italian President Sergio Mattarella visited survivors in a local hospital on Thursday, handing out toys to children. Frontex said the boat was sailing without signs of distress but it alerted the Italian authorities as its thermal cameras indicated there could be a number of people below deck. Media have questioned why the Coast Guard, whose vessels are better equipped to face rough seas, was not deployed until it received an emergency call the next morning.

☆ Death toll in Italian migrant shipwreck rises to 61
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS TV via REUTERSROME, Feb 27 (Reuters) - The death toll in a migrant shipwreck near the southern Italian coast has risen to 61, an Italian official told Reuters on Monday, as searches continued for missing people. A total of 61 people have been found dead so far, while 80 were rescued, said Manuela Curra, a provincial government official. The vessel was carrying people from Afghanistan, Iran and several other countries, and the victims included 12 children, authorities said earlier. Based on reports from survivors, authorities believe 180 to 200 people in total had been on board the vessel, she added. Charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), operating on the ground, said they were assisting several people who had lost relatives in the shipwreck.

☆ Italy pursues Facebook-owner Meta for $925 million in sales taxes
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Emilio Parodi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

MILAN, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Facebook parent company Meta (META.O) faces a potential tax bill of around 870 million euros ($925 million) in Italy after prosecutors launched an investigation into the company, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday. "We strongly disagree with the idea that providing access to online platforms to users should be charged with VAT," a Meta spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters. News of an administrative tax audit into Meta was first published on Wednesday by Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano. ROLE OF FREE ACCESSItaly's tax police and revenue agency calculated a model under which Meta would have had to pay around 220 million euros of sales tax in Italy in 2021, according to the sources. In recent years, the Milan Prosecutor's Office has opened several tax investigations against multinational tech companies such as Google and Apple.

☆ Neobișnuita poveste a omului care a construit o insulă și a declarat-o stat independent (FOTO)
▼ + stars: | 2021-04-12 | by ( Publika.Md - Aici Sunt Știrile | ) www.publika.md time to read: +10 min

La sfârșitul anilor ’60, o autointitulată republică insulară liberă s-a născut pe o platformă construită în largul Adriaticii, dincolo de jurisdicția statului italian. Povestea a fost subiect de articole, cărți și documentare, iar recent a fost ecranizată de Netflix, scrie libertatea.ro. A fost un geniu”, a declarat Matteo Rovere, producătorul filmului, pentru Sky News. Singurul rezident din acel moment, Pietro Bernardini, a fost luat de pe insulă, iar Rosa a fost împiedicat să ajungă acolo. Președintele Republicii libere a Insulei Trandafirilor, Giorgio Rosa, a transmis un mesaj omologului său italian, Giuseppe Saragat, denunțând încălcarea suveranității.

Persons: Giorgio Rosa, Rose, Rosa, Marina, Pietro Bernardini, Matteo Rovere, ., Wagner ., Milo, Paolo Emilio Taviani, Apoi, Giuseppe Saragat Organizations: BBC, Sky News, Marinei Locations: italian, Bologna, Italia, străinătate, Republica Insulei Tradafirilor, Roma, Adriatica, Insula Trandafirilor, Rimini, Republica Insulei Trandafirilor, Esperanto, Marina italiană, Republica Italiană, Malta, Europa, SUA, Trandafirilor, carabinieri, Guardia, Republicii Italiene, Insulei Trandafirilor

☆ Poliția italiană a arestat un important lider al grupării mafiote 'Ndrangheta
▼ + stars: | 2020-08-22 | by ( Https | Www.Facebook.Com Radiochisinau | ) radiochisinau.md time to read: +1 min

Poliția italiană a anunțat vineri că l-a arestat pe Domenico Bellocco, unul dintre liderii unei familii proeminente din temuta grupare mafiotă 'Ndrangheta, relatează DPA, preluat de Agerpres. Guardia di Finanza a precizat că Bellocco se ascundea într-o fermă din Mongiana, la circa 50 de kilometri sud-vest de Catanzaro, în regiunea Calabria din sudul țării. Bellocco, un membru proeminent al familiei criminale cu același nume, era căutat pentru asociere mafiotă și trafic de droguri. 'Ndrangheta provine din regiunea sudică sărăcită Calabria și a depășit Cosa Nostra din Sicilia ca principala grupare mafiotă din lume. Această organizație criminală s-a extins mult în afara Calabriei și a intrat puternic în Europa, America de Nord și Australia și este considerată principala grupare care introduce ilegal cocaină în Europa.

Persons: Domenico Bellocco Organizations: Agerpres, Cosa Nostra Locations: Guardia, Finanza, Catanzaro, Calabria, Rosarno, sărăcită Calabria, Cosa, Sicilia, Europa, America de Nord, Australia

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