This isn’t the first time criminals with links to Italian Mafia crime families have been caught using hacking and conducting credit card schemes. Federico Varese, professor of Criminology at the University of Oxford “In this story, it is notable that there were at least two murders and the use of violence.” Instead there is an important, offline dimension, where people with some cyber expertise meet traditional organized crime, like in this story,” Varese, who has studied and written on organized crime extensively, told The Daily Beast. “There is a common misconception about cybercrime-namely that it happens only online. These kinds of overlaps between cybercrimes and physical law-breaking are more common than one might think, Federico Varese, a professor of criminology at the University of Oxford, told The Daily Beast. In one case, the mobsters kidnapped a woman, held her at gunpoint, took her to an ATM, and forced her to hand over all her money, according to Spanish police. In addition to these more modern electronic crimes, the arrested individuals were also accused of more traditional and heinous crimes, such as kidnapping, assault, coercion, robbery with violence and force, illegal possession of weapons, and two counts of homicides. The recent spate of arrests of individuals in Italy and Spain, however, shows Italian Mafia criminals squarely entering the 21st century of money laundering and organized crime, weaving together tried-and-true tactics of coercive money laundering schemes into the cyber realm. In the raid-which law enforcement officials code-named “Fontana-Almabahia”-Europol and the Italian and Spanish national police forces searched 16 houses, froze 118 bank accounts, and made 106 arrests in all.Īlthough Italian mobsters are the OG organized crime bosses, cybercrime and hacking is traditionally associated with Russian-speaking criminals, Nigerian gangs, or teams working for North Korea’s government. And they also used SIM-swapping schemes, in which criminals convince phone service providers to transfer victims’ phone numbers to another device to access accounts. The gangsters and accomplices also used “vishing,” or voice phishing, in which criminals trick victims over the phone into coughing up personal information such as passwords or credit card details. “This large criminal network was very well organised in a pyramid structure, which included different specialised areas and roles,” Europol said in a statement earlier this week. After the mobsters received the ill-gotten gains, they laundered the currency through front companies, money mules, and cryptocurrency assets, according to Spanish police. In 2021, the SQ released an image of the man they believe was the shooter.The criminals allegedly coordinated with computer experts to run spearphishing emails that duped victims into sending money to bank accounts. The shooter got out of his grey sport utility vehicle and shot the victim before leaving on St-Michel St. Mompoint was fatally shot on Jon St-Michel St. The informant, the gunman in Sollecito’s murder, claimed he was given the order to kill Mompoint and another man he referred to as “Jedi.” He said he decided not to kill the men because they had been his friends in the past, and decided to warn them instead. At the time, the Scoppa brothers, leaders of a Calabrian clan in the Montreal Mafia, sought to kill as many members of a rival Sicilian clan as possible. “The victim was a well-known figure in Montreal organized crime.”Īn informant who testified in the Montreal trials of people accused of murdering Montreal Mafia leaders like Lorenzo Giordano and Rocco Sollecito in 2016 said that Mompoint was also on a hit list kept by brothers Salvatore and Andrea (Andrew) Scoppa. “The operation, which stems from an investigation initiated in July 2021 following the murder of Arsène Mompoint, mobilized more than 30 police officers,” the SQ said. Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |