Lecce, he prints fake banknotes at his home and sells them on Telegram: a man arrested

At the conclusion of a complex investigative activity aimed at contrast din the production and distribution of counterfeit banknotes on dedicated Telegram channels with digital and cryptocurrency payments, the military of the Cryptocurrency Section, with the support of the Provincial Carabinieri Command of Lecce, have executed a precautionary measure order personal coercive order issued by the Preliminary Investigations Judge of the Court of Lecce, against a subject, resident in the municipality of Casarano (Lecce), held responsible for the production and trafficking of counterfeit currency (art. 453 CP).

The complex investigative activity, started in February 2024 and coordinated by the Public Prosecutor's Office at the Court of Lecce, originates from the continuum monitoring of Telegram channels carried out by specialized staff of the Cryptocurrency Section of the Carabinieri and he agreed di locate a subject, rooted in the province of Lecce, dedicated to the management of a clandestine printing plant for the production of counterfeit Euro banknotes in denominations of 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100.

The printing house, set up in a domestic environment, allowed the suspect to produce a significant amount of counterfeit money which was subsequently distributed, through shipments in Italy and abroad, with a turnover preliminarily estimated at over €60.000,00.

Technical analyses carried out by the NAC (National Analysis Centre) of the Bank of Italy, allowed counterfeit banknotes to be classified as two new and insidious classes of counterfeiting originating in Italy, characterized by excellent manufacturing quality and the presence of characteristics similar to genuine ones. The elements previously acquired oriented the investigations towards a distribution chain created by a "vendor" which, using the nickname “@DeathOfSilentBuy”, ran a Telegram channel dedicated to the sale of counterfeit banknotes.

In particular, it emerged that buyers, after paying in Bitcoin or via Paypal for the counterfeit banknotes, for a consideration corresponding to approximately 10% of the nominal value, they received postal packages sent by courier.

The complex investigative reconstruction has brought to light that the arrested, using a well-known website used for the sale of second-hand clothes, generated the labels to be affixed to the envelopes to be sent in order to evade any checks on the packages sent.

The specialist units of the Cryptocurrency Section of the Carabinieri Anti-Counterfeiting Command, through complex investigations and the use of advanced technological methodologies, they managed to de-anonymize the person responsible for the crime. Using cutting-edge investigative techniques, analyzing transactions on the blockchain and integrating traditional investigation activities, the active clandestine printing plant was identified and dismantled, according to initial reconstructions, from December 2022 until today.

The investigations carried out have overall made it possible to attribute numerous shipments sent to Italy and other European Union countries to the suspect, such as France, Spain, Germany, Austria and Luxembourg. In particular, during the investigation, through the activation of international cooperation channels and the support of EUROPOL, in the municipality of Feytiat the French police arrested a person receiving a postal package in flagrante delicto containing eleven banknotes with a nominal value of €50 false for a total amount of €550.

The virtual environment where the exchanges were carried out was the Telegram messaging platform, widely recognized for its security and popularity and has become, among other things, the new frontier for cybercriminals.

In context, towards theA preventive asset seizure decree was carried out on the current accounts and cryptocurrency wallets of the suspect of the subject for a value of €11.000,00, proceeds from illicit sales and, in the executive phase, in which a Europol specialist also participated, 5.000,00 counterfeit euros were seized from 20 euros, 65.000,00 euros already printed and ready to be defined, 5.100,00 euros found inside 6 packages which the vendor was about to send via international courier to its customers in Italy and abroad.

3 printers were also found inside the house as well as numerous material useful for the production of the counterfeit banknotes and during the search, the vendor's Telegram channel was also seized.