Six people were arrested this Tuesday (9), in Anzio, in the province of Rome, accused of corruption and extortion in Italian citizenship practices.
Those allegedly involved are the head of the Civil State Office of Anzio and a Brazilian lawyer, according to the newspaper Latina Oggi.
Three other people are being investigated for the same crime: a public employee from Nettuno, two Brazilian cultural mediators and an Italian citizen, an employee of a Café.
Everyone is under house arrest.
The action
The meticulous investigation, coordinated by the Velletri Public Prosecutor's Office, lasted around five months.
The blitz took place on Tuesday morning, shortly before the offices closed, when men from the investigation team invaded the Civil State, and caught the officer while she received an envelope containing 500 euros from the lawyer's hands.
The agreed sum – according to the investigators – was for speed up the process obtaining Italian citizenship.
The two were detained, despite both trying to justify the amount contained in the envelope.
The investigation
In recent months, officials have become suspicious of the fact that most applicants for Italian citizenship in the Municipality of Anzio are Brazilian.
Following in the footsteps of those involved, the investigators arrived first in Anzio and then in Nettuno, where further investigations are underway.
During the operations, under the command of Deputy Attorney General Giuseppe Travaglini, it was a large amount of money was seized from the lawyer's office.
The investigations, however, are not completed. The police will carry out a meticulous reconstruction of the seized documents, including the residence declarations of more than 600 Brazilians, who in a few months obtained the Italian citizenship obtained irregularly, according to the Italian Public Ministry.
