(Luxembourg, 6 November 2025) – At the request of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Bologna (Italy), the Italian Financial Police (Guardia di Finanza) of Prato carried out searches and seized over 2.2 million meters of fabric, documentation and various electronic devices, as part of a customs fraud investigation involving the smuggling of raw material and textile products.
The investigation concerns a smuggling scheme where products are directly imported from Chinese suppliers to storage premises in Italy, by allegedly using fake suppliers, buyers, and delivery addresses. The scheme further made use of fake legal entities across Europe to reroute the invoices and payment orders received by legitimate Italian companies, thus simulating an intra-EU purchase to avoid custom duties and import VAT payments.
While the storage premises used for the scheme remained the same, the legal entities registered to those addresses were periodically shut down. This allowed the suspects to carry out long-term business while only changing the name of the company, deflecting monitoring from financial authorities, and keeping the amount of import operations below certain alert thresh olds.
During the investigation, investigative measures, including searches, were conducted in Germany and Poland, where, among other countries, fake legal entities were established by the alleged perpetrators to simulate intra-EU trade. They revealed that no import forms were filed by any of the target companies, nor did they have proof of payment of custom duties and import VAT.
All persons concerned are presumed innocent until proven guilty in the competent Italian courts of law.
The EPPO is the independent public prosecution office of the European Union. It is responsible for investigating, prosecuting and bringing to judgment crimes against the financial interests of the EU.