Police in Italy have reportedly found substantial amounts of Libyan
and Syrian crude that were greater than some local refineries’
inventories, with sources connected with the investigation saying that
crude, “should not have been there.”
One explanation, according to The Times which cited a report by La
Repubblica, is that the Italian mafia may have teamed up with Islamic
State to smuggle crude oil from the Middle East into Italy.
But the police have no evidence the oil came from IS, or whether it
came from another non-extremist group of traffickers, because the
cargoes passed through intermediaries, which helped the original senders
mask their tracks.
As reported online by oilprice.com, the mafia smuggles oil into Italy
by setting up shale companies abroad that act as oil exporters. They
sell crude directly to gas station operators at much lower prices, and
then close the shell companies. The mafia uses the scheme to avoid VAT
payments and to launder money.
The logistics involve tankers rendezvousing with smaller vessels out
of Turkey and Libya in the middle of the Mediterranean. The smugglers
transfer the oil from the smaller vessels to the larger ones, and then
return the small vessels to their country of origin while the bigger
tankers set sail for the southern Italian ports.
Last month, Italian journalist
Francesca Astorri
reported on a propaganda e-book titled Black Flags from Rome, in which
the Islamic State said support from the mafia was crucial for its
penetration in Italy.
In a separate report, Newsweek noted that Islamic State’s resources
are dwindling as it suffers a series of defeats on the battlefield.
It lost the northern Iraqi city of Mosul last month to a coalition
force led by Baghdad and supported by the US-led coalition. It is now
besieged in its de facto capital of Raqqa, losing more than half of the
city in less than two months.
https://www.neweurope.eu/article/mafia-suspected-helping-islamic-state-smuggle-oil-italy/