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Italian police bust gang trafficking in stolen ancient artefacts

Police forces in four countries on Wednesday seized some 25,000 Greek and Roman archaeological items worth over €40 million in pre-dawn raids, cracking down on illegal trafficking in cultural goods.

Published: 5 July 2018 08:55 CEST

Italian police bust gang trafficking in stolen ancient artefacts

An image taken after a different gang was caught smuggling stolen artefacts in 2016. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP

Some 250 officers in Italy, Spain, Britain and Germany simultaneously swooped on 40 houses – the culmination of a four-year investigation led by the Italians, the European police agency said.

In Italy, the raids were focused on the regions of Sicily, Calabria, Piedmont, Apulia, in what is considered one of the biggest crackdowns in such crimes “in Italian history”.

In the Sicilian Caltanissetta area, “which is rich in archaeological sites from the Greek and Roman epochs, local members of the organised crime group illegally excavated artefacts,” Europol said.

The items were then smuggled out of Italy, “equipped with false provenances and sold via German auction houses.”

Facilitators in Barcelona and London helped organise the “supply chain” and provided technical support.

Police also seized 1,500 tools including metal detectors in the early morning raids.

“International cooperation is key to the success of such investigations in the field of trafficking of cultural goods, in which artefacts are moved through several EU countries and levels before they are brought to the legal market,” Europol added.

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Italy's Liguria regional president arrested in corruption probe

Liguria President Giovanni Toti, a right-wing former MEP who was close to late prime minister Silvio Berlusconi but is no longer party aligned, was placed under house arrest, Genoa prosecutors said in a statement.

The 55-year-old is accused of having accepted 74,100 euros in funds for his election campaign between December 2021 and March 2023 from prominent local businessmen, Aldo Spinelli and his son Roberto Spinelli, in return for various favours.

These allegedly included seeking to privatise a public beach and speeding up the renewal for 30 years of the lease of a Genoa port terminal to a Spinelli family-controlled company, which was approved in December 2021.

A total of 10 people were targeted in the probe, also including Paolo Emilio Signorini, who stepped down last year as head of the Genoa Port Authority, one of the largest in Italy. He was being held in jail on Tuesday.

He is accused of having accepted from Aldo Spinelli benefits including cash, 22 stays in a luxury hotel in Monte Carlo – complete with casino chips, massages and beauty treatments – and luxury items including a 7,200-euro Cartier bracelet.

The ex-port boss, who went on to lead energy group Iren, was also promised a 300,000-euro-a-year job when his tenure expires, prosecutors said.

In return, Signorini was said to have granted Aldo Spinelli favours including also working to speed up the renewal of the family’s port concession.

The Spinellis are themselves accused of corruption, with Aldo – an ex-president of the Genoa and Livorno football clubs – placed under house arrest and his son Roberto temporarily banned from conducting business dealings.

In a separate strand of the investigation, Toti’s chief of staff, Matteo Cozzani, was placed under house arrest accused of “electoral corruption” which facilitated the activities of Sicily’s Cosa Nostra Mafia.

As regional coordinator during local elections in 2020, he was accused of promising jobs and public housing in return for the votes of at least 400 Sicilian residents of Genoa.

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