San Felice a Cancello: four very young people attempted to spend counterfeit banknotes, stopped and reported by the Carabinieri.

It seemed like they were recalling an old film from 1956 that starred Totò, Pepino De Filippo and Giacomo Furia as improvised counterfeiters. Unfortunately, this time it wasn't a light-hearted fiction.

The four budding forgers, three from Caserta and one from Naples, aged between 16 and 24, were stopped and reported late yesterday afternoon by the Carabinieri of the Cancello Station.

It was the numerous reports received by the emergency number "112", forwarded by some shopkeepers in San Felice a Cancello, in the Caserta area, that triggered the immediate investigations by the military of the Arma.

The four who had tried, on several occasions, to spend without success the clearly counterfeit 50,00 euro notes, were tracked down while they were looking for other shops to carry out their scam. Their car, a Fiat Panda, was stopped in Piazza Castra Marcelli.

Once they were taken out of the vehicle, they were identified and subjected to a personal and vehicle search. It took just a few moments for the Carabinieri to find, in the possession of the young people, 6 counterfeit €50,00 banknotes and a further sum of €720,00 divided into non-counterfeit banknotes of various denominations. All the banknotes, both the counterfeit ones and those in force, since they were considered to be the proceeds of the illicit activity, were seized.

After the formal procedures, the boys were reported at liberty. They will have to answer, in competition, for spending and introducing into the state, without concert, counterfeit money.