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| Counterfeit gold in the form of small crops seized from the Italians by the Albanian police |
Two Italian citizens were arrested today in the city of Elbasan, with a somewhat special charge, worthy of a movie script.
The two elderly Italians, 67-year-old F.M, resident in Naples, and 76-year-old R.G, resident in Milan, are accused by law enforcement that, in collaboration with each other, have sold to several jewelers in the capital of Albania but also in North Macedonia, a kind of metal advertised as gold, in the form of grains, with an estimated value of around 200,000 euros.
In fact the metal sold did not consist only of precious metal but was a mixture of a much lower value, if not unusable, Albanian Police reports.
The fraud had been going on since at least the month of June, and the fraud scheme was as simple as "evil". First, the two Italians presented the jewelers with a small amount of pure gold and then handed over the remaining amount, which was actually mixed with various metals.
As material evidence, 3 kilograms of suspected fake gold, 160 grams of pure gold, 4 mobile devices, 1500 euros and 150 Swiss francs were seized.