Italy is currently making a name for itself with a particularly bizarre case. As the financial police in Rimini report, 800,000 liters of kerosene were stolen from a NATO pipeline system at the end of last decade. This was then sold to unwitting drivers through gas stations.
As a spokeswoman for the defense alliance has now confirmed to dpa, criminals had tapped one of the pipes in the pipeline system before the theft in a field not far from the Belgian-French border. The crime was discovered in June 2019, the report said.
A few days ago, the financial police in Rimini reported for the first time about extensive investigations into the case in Italy. According to them, the stolen kerosene was brought to Italy by a local gang and sold illegally to unwitting drivers. It was initially unknown whether there was any damage to vehicles. Italian police even stated that the amount of fuel stolen was approximately 900,000 liters.
The case is particularly explosive because the tapped Central European Pipeline System (CEPS) is an important part of NATO’s defense system. It covers Belgium, Germany, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands and is designed to meet the Alliance’s petroleum products needs at all times. For example, it connects air bases with storage facilities, pumping stations and power points.
Source: Krone
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