money laundering
Strike against organized crime: Bavaria auctions off luxury cars belonging to the Italian mafia
The cars confiscated in Bavaria include a Lamborghini (left) and a Mercedes G-Class
© Matthias Balk / DPA
Bavaria sells confiscated mafia luxury cars to the highest bidder. The Italian ‘Ndrangheta had used the cars to evade taxes.
Last fall, the Bavarian police struck an important blow against the Italian ‘Ndrangheta mafia: as part of a large-scale international operation, four people who were wanted by an arrest warrant were arrested in October and are believed to be members of the mafia. During the raid in Eichstätt, among other things, five cars were confiscated, around which a whole “sales tax carousel” is said to have turned.
The cars were sold again and again. The fraudsters submitted the invoices to the tax office and received a refund of the sales tax. This is possible when the products are exported to other countries and not sold to end customers. The damage caused by this is said to have been around 13 million euros. The state treasury now wants to get at least a small part of it back: the luxury cars are to be foreclosed on.
Bavaria: Investigators confiscate luxury bodies
According to a report by the “Bild” newspaper, these are cars from the Lamborghini, Mercedes and Bentley brands. “It’s not a trivial offense to illegally have the sales tax paid out on such cars,” says Volker Brand, head of the criminal police inspection at the police headquarters in Upper Bavaria North. When new, the cars were worth several hundred thousand euros.
In some cases, only the vehicle documents were passed on, the vehicles themselves never left the dealer’s parking lot – it was money laundering on a large scale that the investigators caught. Although this will not destroy the Italian mafia, says Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann, he still sees the arrests as an important success in the fight against organized crime in Bavaria. The perpetrators now face up to ten years in prison for serious tax evasion.
Swell: “Image” / “Evening News” / DPA
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