The Guardia di Finanza (Italy’s economic and financial police) completed, between 1 March and 31 July 2026, a wide-ranging inspection campaign on the fuel market that led to 265 people being reported to the judicial authorities and to the seizure of more than 20 million kg of energy products. The operation, carried out also in cooperation with the Price Surveillance Authority at the Ministry of Enterprises, moved on two fronts: tackling fraud involving energy products and excise duty evasion, and checking compliance with transparency obligations on pump prices, against a backdrop of tensions on international energy markets. Among the most common fraudulent mechanisms detected by units of the Guardia di Finanza were so-called designer fuels, petroleum products declared under fictitious descriptions - such as “lubricating oil” or “organic anti-corrosion liquid” - to avoid paying the excise duty due on diesel intended for road transport. Alongside this scheme, investigations uncovered clandestine storage sites and unauthorised filling stations, as well as the misuse of subsidised agricultural diesel, sold to parties not entitled to it and diverted to uses subject to a higher rate of tax.
Over the period covered, units completed 1,371 operations concerning excise duties on energy products, establishing fraudulent consumption of more than 6.5 million kg of product. On price transparency, 3,428 checks were carried out at roadside filling stations, with 2,279 violations contested against 937 operators for failure to display prices or discrepancies between the prices reported and those actually charged. The Guardia di Finanza also examined more than 400 situations involving tax warehouses, commercial depots and other operators in the supply chain.
The largest case by volume was reconstructed by the Gruppo di Udine and the Compagnie di Tolmezzo e Tarvisio, which identified several fuel loads arriving from EU and non-EU countries and falsely declared as lubricating oil. The seizure involved more than 427,950 litres of hydrocarbons, against established fraudulent consumption of 1,216,500 litres and an overall estimated evasion of €1,130,104 in excise duties and €509,882 in VAT. Those responsible were reported to the judicial authorities for evading assessment and payment of excise duty on energy products. Similar schemes emerged in Acerra, where the Gruppo di Nola seized a clandestine depot containing more than 80,000 litres of diesel “designer fuel” and reported four people, and along the main rail routes between Udine and Verona, where the respective economic and financial police units intercepted two tank containers from Eastern Europe carrying 64,000 litres of product labelled as lubricant. In that case, investigations are continuing to reconstruct the entire supply chain.
A different type of fraud involved the tax warehouse in Vado Ligure, where the Nucleo di polizia economico-finanziaria di Savona reconstructed, according to the prosecution, a system in which some hauliers, during duly authorised loading operations, stole fuel by tampering with hoses and installing mechanical bypasses. The stolen product was loaded onto tankers, taken out of the depot and resold at discounted prices. The operation ended with the seizure of more than 3,700 litres of fuel and the reporting of 15 people to the judicial authorities for unlawful removal, in addition to two others reported for receiving stolen goods after buying the misappropriated product.
In Catania, the local Nucleo di polizia economico-finanziaria, supported by the 1° Nucleo operativo metropolitano di Roma, uncovered a dual fraud system which, according to the prosecution, involved on the one hand the introduction into Italy of road diesel declared as “organic anti-corrosion liquid” and, on the other, the use of subsidised agricultural diesel for purposes subject to a higher excise duty. Personal precautionary measures were imposed on five people, considered jointly responsible for the offence under Article 40 of the TUA. The seizure involved around 120,000 kg of energy products, while established fraudulent consumption came close to 330,000 kg.
The Compagnia di Gallipoli dismantled, according to the prosecution, a criminal association operating between the provinces of Lecce and Brindisi and based on three mechanisms: the artificial creation of agricultural businesses which, using documentation deemed to contain false statements, obtained subsidised diesel that was then sold to parties not entitled to it; a commercial depot which, operating as a roadside filling station, supplied hundreds of vehicles with agricultural diesel; and the provision of excise control booklets by two compliant agricultural entrepreneurs. The operation ended with four personal precautionary measures - three house arrests and one ban from working as an agricultural entrepreneur - and the reporting of 23 people for offences including evasion of excise duty assessment and false statements in a public deed. The established fraudulent removal concerned 519,540 litres, with estimated excise duty evasion of around €156,000.
A similar mechanism was dismantled by the Nucleo di polizia economico-finanziaria di Foggia, which reconstructed a group that, according to the prosecution, relied on the complicity of a nursery business holding a substantial allocation of subsidised diesel to supply a rudimentary illegal filling station lacking any safety standards. Five people were made subject to personal precautionary measures, with a preventive seizure, including equivalent assets, of more than €1m in property and financial holdings.
In the province of Pescara, an investigation by the local Gruppo concerned heating diesel: according to investigators, during deliveries, including to public-sector customers, quantities lower than those purchased were dispensed by tampering with vehicle meters, while the diverted product entered a parallel sales channel, mixed with regularly stored road diesel. The mechanism made it possible to evade both taxes on cash revenues and excise duties, exploiting the difference in rates between heating fuel and road diesel. Four luxury vehicles and four company vehicles, with a total value of around €1m, were seized, and 15 people were reported to the judicial authorities for offences ranging from excise duty evasion to fraud in public supplies, receiving stolen goods and self-laundering.
The most extensive investigation in financial terms was carried out by the Nucleo di polizia economico-finanziaria di Catanzaro, which reconstructed an association active in the Crotone area with branches in Calabria and Veneto. According to the investigation, some companies allegedly made fictitious declarations, through documentation submitted to Arcea (the Calabria regional agency for agricultural payments) of agricultural fuel requirements linked to greenhouse crops, before selling the product to hauliers and earthmoving companies not entitled to it. The preventive seizure, including equivalent assets, exceeded €8m in financial holdings and movable and immovable property; 29 people were referred for evading excise duty assessment, criminal association and issuing invoices for non-existent transactions.
More limited checks concerned individual plants and illegal filling stations. In Orta Nova, in the province of Foggia, the local Gruppo discovered an area illegally set up to sell fuel near a supermarket, with agricultural diesel sold at €1.50 per litre to parties not entitled to it: 1,400 litres of product and the equipment were seized, and two people were referred. In Rieti, officers identified a buyer who, despite having had no agricultural activity since 2020, had accumulated more than 2,000 kg of subsidised fuel between 2021 and 2025, with a remaining 520 litres seized during a search. In South Tyrol, the Tenenza di Silandro sealed ten non-compliant dispensing pumps at two separate sites, due to the absence of markings from the Bolzano Weights and Measures Office and the dispensing of quantities lower than those shown on the display, with an administrative fine that can reach €12,000. In Taranto, more than 30,000 litres of petrol, diesel, aviation fuel and agricultural diesel stored in tanks set up as illegal filling stations were seized, while in Naples the Gruppo pronto impiego seized around 5,000 litres of diesel in an unauthorised garage, reporting three people who already had previous convictions.
