Two Italian citizens, who allegedly rented luxury cars from companies in Arad County to sell them later in their own country, have been detained by police, while investigations continue to identify several Romanian accomplices.
Sources from the Arad Court Prosecutor's Office told AGERPRES on Friday that the case has been under investigation for several months, and four searches were carried out in the county on Thursday.
The two Italian citizens were detained for 24 hours, but investigations continue as Romanian accomplices are also being sought.
Authorities say that this modus operandi had been encountered in the county 20 years ago, but at that time, Italians brought cars into Romania to sell them, whereas now they are taking them from Romania to Italy.
After renting expensive cars from Arad County, generally manufactured in 2025, they would deactivate the GPS systems and take the vehicles out of the country, then report them as stolen to the Italian police. In this way, the group relied on the rental companies in Arad recovering their losses from insurance companies, hoping they would not be further pursued.
According to judicial sources, there is no suspicion that the rental companies were involved. In fact, these companies filed complaints with the police regarding rented vehicles, valued between 60,000 and 90,000 euros, that were not returned. The investigation continues in a case of fraud, and the total damages are yet to be determined.
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