By Delegation of the Turin Office of the European Public Prosecutor, Financiers of the Provincial Commands of Rome, Turin, Milan, Bergamo, Brescia, Lodi, Padua, Rovigo, Bologna, Piacenza, Fermo, Florence, Bari, Brindisi, Lecce, Caserta, Salerno , Palermo, Trapani , Ragusa and Messina carry out searches, seizures and a European Arrest Warrant from the European Public Prosecutor’s Office in Cologne. Around 250 people are involved in Operation Huracàn, which led to five arrests, over 450 searches (including more than 50 in Italy) and confiscations of properties and luxury cars in Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain involves financiers and a “cash dog” unit and follows the discovery of a massive organized crime group VAT fraud scheme in the international car trade, which is estimated to have bought and sold around 10,000 vehicles between 2017 and 2023, for a total fraudulent turnover of €225 million and a related loss in VAT revenue of 38 million euros. The case stems from an administrative control activity related to missed VAT payments after buying cars in Germany and then selling them to individuals and companies in other EU countries. The findings of the investigation revealed the existence of sales tax fraud by an important company in which around 60 people are said to be involved for various reasons. According to the indictment, the suspects had bought motor vehicles in Germany through Italian and Hungarian companies that had taken over economic activities “out of convenience” – as they were handled de facto in Germany – or completely fictitiously. The investigation also revealed that the German suppliers told the tax office that they had sold the cars in Italy as part of the “intra-community sale” mechanism
