A sting operation carried out in Rome last week led to priests, who were actually Italian police, arresting a group of cardinals who were really criminals in disguise. It sounds like the opening to a bad joke but it really happened after police came up with a plan to catch five scammers who had already stolen about €1.7 million, or just over $2 million, from 20 different victims.
The scammers tricked their victims into meeting them in churches near the Vatican or at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Major Fabio Valletta told Agence France-Presse (AFP), according to Deutsche Welle (DW).
There, dressed as cardinals, they would present themselves as Vatican intermediaries promising business people in financial straits that they could secure loans on their behalf from the Vatican bank.
The fake cardinals’ only demand was that the victims paid them in cash upfront for their services, according to reporting from DW and The Times.
Once the victims and the pseudo cardinals could come to an agreement, the crooks would disappear with their money.
When Carabinieri officers caught the thieves red-handed, they had witnessed the swindlers receiving €15,000 ($17,728) in cash from a victim, the Daily Sabah reported. The crooks had assured the victim that they would help them secure a loan of €500,000.
Law enforcement caught the fraudsters when they headed for the back door after getting the money, the outlet reported.
When cops caught the group’s alleged leader, Lucio Cesaroni, he was recorded saying: “How can the Carabinieri arrest me? I am extraterritorial.”
Police began their investigation into this group of five several years ago after two hotel operators reported that they had been tricked out of €20,000 and €75,000.
