$50M In Counterfeit Vintage Consoles and Videogames Seized From Italian Crime Ring (bbc.com)
- Reference: 0174997405
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/09/14/2337209/50m-in-counterfeit-vintage-consoles-and-videogames-seized-from-italian-crime-ring
- Source link: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1k7387pmrpo
> Around 12,000 consoles holding over 47 million pirated video games were seized by police, Alessandro Langella, head of the economic crime unit for Turin's financial police, told the AFP news agency... They were "all from China" and were imported to be sold in specialised shops or online, Mr Langella said...
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> The seized games have been destroyed. Nine Italian nationals have been arrested and charged with trading in counterfeited goods. If found guilty, they face up to eight years in prison.
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1k7387pmrpo
Happy to hear all other forms of crime in Italy (Score:2)
have been solved so that their police have time for this.
Re: Happy to hear all other forms of crime in Ital (Score:3)
fraud is fraud. It is not like every police officers all look at one type of crime and when it's all out they look at the next one.
Most likely you are looking for strange imports. And then once you confirm the product being inported you've done most of the work So might as well do the bust.
Re: Happy to hear all other forms of crime in Ital (Score:2)
I really doubt that. I was talking to a guy who lives in southern Italy who says the mafiosos still run that part of the country, up to and including paying off the police to look the other way.
4000-in-1 cartridges are not sold for 4000 euro. (Score:2)
Someone in Italy couldn't do the math.
You can get such retro consoles for 25 euros (including shipping) on Aliexpress.
That is 12.000 x 25 euro = 0.3 million euro.
Alas (Score:2)
> ... economic crime unit ...
Thankfully, they weren't doing this to protect US/Japan monopolies on software but to make all crime less profitable. Alas, there isn't a difference.
The cosa nostra must be desperate (Score:2)
Whatsamatta for you, cosa nostra , traditional criminal activites (drugs, prostitution rings, loan sharking, casinos, etc) not profitable anymore or something?
Re: The cosa nostra must be desperate (Score:2)
Probably. The Cuomo crime family went into politics and journalism until they got busted.
Re: (Score:3)
> Whatsamatta for you, cosa nostra , traditional criminal activites (drugs, prostitution rings, loan sharking, casinos, etc) not profitable anymore or something?
Mario doesn't play.