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CRIME

Italian arrested for explosives possession after FBI tip-off

Italian police have arrested a 24-year-old man for possession of explosive materials, following a tip-off from the USA's FBI.

Italian arrested for explosives possession after FBI tip-off
File photo showing Italian police carrying out raids, in the Roman suburb of Ostia. Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFP

Police said on Thursday that the man was arrested “for possession of material which could be used for making explosives”.

The arrest followed a police search of the man's apartment in Viterbo, a city of around 70,000 people in the central Lazio region, where they found material used to create a pipe bomb.

This included powder, glue, and small coins, and police also found a rifle, two air pistols and other weapons including a knuckle-duster.

READ ALSO: A Facebook 'like' can constitute apology for terrorism, top Italian court rules

He was arrested and charged on Monday, but police only made a public statement about the arrest on Thursday after a judge extended the detention order. 

The investigation was prompted by the American intelligence and security service, which noted posts on the Italian's social media pages praising New York terror suspect Sayfullo Saipov..

Saipov is accused of carrying out a truck attack in the US city on October 31st last year, in which eight people were killed. He was arrested immediately after the attack and told investigators he was inspired by propaganda from the terror group Isis, though he pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and terrorism.

Before the FBI tip-off, the Viterbo man, reportedly of Latvian origin, was not known to police or security services for extremist views.

READ ALSO: How Italy keeps track of 80 terrorism alerts each day

CRIME

Italy has most recovery fund fraud cases in EU, report finds

Italy is conducting more investigations into alleged fraud of funds from the EU post-Covid fund and has higher estimated losses than any other country, the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) said.

Italy has most recovery fund fraud cases in EU, report finds

The EPPO reportedly placed Italy under special surveillance measures following findings that 179 out of a total of 206 investigations into alleged fraud of funds through the NextGenerationEU programme were in Italy, news agency Ansa reported.

Overall, Italy also had the highest amount of estimated damage to the EU budget related to active investigations into alleged fraud and financial wrongdoing of all types, the EPPO said in its annual report published on Friday.

The findings were published after a major international police investigation into fraud of EU recovery funds on Thursday, in which police seized 600 million euros’ worth of assets, including luxury villas and supercars, in northern Italy.

The European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility, established to help countries bounce back from the economic blow dealt by the Covid pandemic, is worth more than 800 billion euros, financed in large part through common EU borrowing.

READ ALSO: ‘It would be a disaster’: Is Italy at risk of losing EU recovery funds?

Italy has been the largest beneficiary, awarded 194.4 billion euros through a combination of grants and loans – but there have long been warnings from law enforcement that Covid recovery funding would be targeted by organised crime groups.

2023 was reportedly the first year in which EU financial bodies had conducted audits into the use of funds under the NextGenerationEU program, of which the Recovery Fund is part.

The EPPO said that there were a total of 618 active investigations into alleged fraud cases in Italy at the end of 2023, worth 7.38 billion euros, including 5.22 billion euros from VAT fraud alone.

At the end of 2023, the EPPO had a total of 1,927 investigations open, with an overall estimated damage to the EU budget of 19.2 billion euros.

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