The petroleum product traveled with documents attesting it was solvent or anticorrosive liquid: from the chemical analyzes it emerged instead that it was composed for 70% of diesel oil and for the residual part of vegetable oil, suitable for guaranteeing carburetion in diesel engines.
TREVISO. The “Giallo Oro” operation closed with two arrests and 35 complaints, in the sector of combating the international traffic of petroleum products, taken from refineries in Eastern Europe and destined to be released for consumption in Italy, in tax evasion, as low quality automotive diesel.
The Treviso yellow flames, in the course of various interventions, carried out in recent months along the motorway arteries that connect the eastern border to the rest of the country, denounced 35 people (31 foreigners and 4 Italians, the latter residing in the provinces of Mantua, Naples and Catania), arresting two in the act of crime. The alleged offenses are the smuggling of diesel fuel and the irregularity in the circulation of vehicles dedicated to the transport of petroleum products subject to excise duties.
Assets worth € 1.7 million were also seized, including 8 tractor units, 15 semi-trailers, 1 clandestine distributor and 345,000 liters of mineral oil.
The subsequent developments of the investigations then made it possible to ascertain the fraudulent consumption, on the national territory, of 1,800,000 liters of diesel and the omitted payment of excise duties for one million euros.
The diesel, transported in tanks and articulated lorries (often lacking the minimum safety requirements for the transport of dangerous goods), came from refineries located in Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Austria.
If the controls of the Guardia di Finanza had been evaded, it would have been released for consumption, without paying excise duties, in various areas of the national territory, including the provinces of Milan, Rome, Latina, Frosinone, Foggia, Naples, Ancona, Mantua, Caserta and Catania, where it would have been stored in illegal warehouses and subsequently mixed before retail sale