Foreign currency was taken from the envelopes at Linate and then exchanged in the airport and downtown agencies
They stole money for solidarity. The state police and the local police of Milan carried out an order against 7 people held responsible for the theft of foreign currency from countries of the Far East, in particular from Japan. Two men aged 46 and 51 and a woman aged 40, with their two accomplices aged 46 and 55, were subjected by the investigating magistrate of Milan to the obligation of presentation to the judicial police and the obligation to stay in the municipality of residence with prohibition of removal from home on charges of multiple theft and money laundering. Another 45-year-old and a 40-year-old are under investigation.
The investigations “showed how three employees of the Post Office and four of their accomplices have, over the years, stolen over 350 thousand euros: this, in fact, would be the value of the foreign currency subtracted over the years from the correspondence that arrived at the sorting center of the Italian Post Office in Linate is intended for charitable works or as consideration for the purchase of good luck amulets “.
Japanese yen and Australian dollars, according to the indictment, were regularly exchanged for euros at the exchange offices located in the busiest places in Milan to blend in with the multitude of citizens and customers present. The investigation was prompted by some reports from exchange agencies present at Linate airport: the frequent requests for Japanese and Australian, Canadian, American and Australian currency exchange, pounds and Swiss francs were always made by the same person.
The initial investigations led to the identification of that customer in a Poste Italiane employee in charge of sorting mailing bags right in the center of Linate. The investigative activity made it possible to ascertain how the huge changes also involved other people: thanks also to the video footage inside the postal sorting office, the investigators “were able to reconstruct both the modus operandi and the involvement of other employees” .
Inside the sorting center, the employees involved in the thefts were ‘masters’ in identifying envelopes containing foreign currency. These bags were first hidden, for example under clothes, and then placed in backpacks in order to exit safely from the workplace without being noticed by other colleagues, and then made the change in special external exchange counters, the investigators explain.
“The frequency of thefts and the huge amount of stolen money” subsequently made it necessary for external accomplices to participate in the post office. These external subjects went both to the most crowded exchange agencies in the city of Milan, such as those present in the Central station and in the Duomo area, and, as ascertained by the receipts found, to exchange agencies in other large central and northern Italian cities.
Source-www.adnkronos.com