TRIESTE – Major operation by the Finance Police in Udine against illicit fuel trafficking, with the seizure of more than 420,000 litres of energy products and 25 people reported to the authorities.
The operation, carried out in recent months by the provincial command in Friuli with the involvement of the Udine, Tolmezzo and Tarvisio units, focused on monitoring transports of petroleum products arriving both from EU and non-EU countries, considered at risk of tax fraud. Checks targeted tanker trucks accompanied by documentation that generically indicated the transport of lubricating oil from Eastern Europe to various destinations in Italy. Technical tests on the products, also conducted using an infrared spectrophotometer, however showed characteristics consistent with petrol and diesel intended for road use.
According to investigators, these were therefore fuels brought into Italy in evasion of excise duties and VAT. In detail, the finance police seized 427,953 litres of smuggled hydrocarbons together with the vehicles used for transport. They also established the fraudulent consumption of more than 1.2 million litres of petroleum products.
The estimated loss to the Treasury exceeds €1.13 million in evaded excise duties, to which must be added around €510,000 in unpaid VAT.
The 25 people reported include both the transporters and the final recipients of the so-called ‘designer fuel’, used to circumvent tax controls through formal classifications that did not correspond to the product’s actual nature.
Investigations are still under way to reconstruct the entire illicit trafficking chain. The operation is part of broader efforts to combat fraud in the energy sector, considered particularly serious because of its impact on public revenues and the distortions it creates in competition. The authorities also stressed the risks linked to the use of chemically altered products, both for the environment and for road safety.
