13 fake police arrested in Italy for robbing tourists

Rome military police on Friday busted a ring of 13 people, almost all Iranians, who allegedly robbed tourists in many cities of Italy by posing as police officers.

Another two suspects were at large, while four cars assigned to front men were seized by Carabinieri, the Italian military police force, according to a statement from the Rome Carabinieri.

The criminals, based near the city of Caserta in southern Italy, used to falsely portray themselves as members of the Italian police.

They pretended to be conducting drugs searches and instead stole valuables, the statement said. The estimated business turnover was of hundreds of thousands of euros.

A total of 29 people were put under investigation in the operation, which started last August when Carabinieri caught red-handed an Iranian national in the Rome center, the commander of Rome Center Carabinieri military police, Major Aniello Schettino, told Xinhua.

The Iranian tried to escape detection running at breakneck speed against traffic, and even trying to ram the Carabinieri car, along with two accomplices who managed to run away, Schettino said.

"The arrested later resulted from investigations to be one of the leaders of this criminal organization, which had made dozens of robberies in Rome, Milan, Venice, Rimini, Florence, and other touristic cities," Schettino explained to Xinhua.

The criminals used to stay in residence or hotels, and were helped in their illegal activity by a network of businesses receiving stolen goods.

Schettino added that many of the gang had entered Italy as illegal migrants. "Each of them paid around 3,000 euros (3,432 U.S. dollars) for the journey via Turkey and Greece into Italy, the last stretch often via sea. Once in Italy, they used to ask for asylum," he said.

Italy is facing growing flows of migrants from African and Middle East countries across the Mediterranean sea. Endit