Saturday, February 24, 2001

By Ward Sanderson
Naples bureau

Ward Sanderson / Stars and Stripes An Italian Carabinieri investigator (who did not wish to be identified) and Tony Lettera, an agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in Naples, stand next to BMWs seized from Americans during an investigation into a car theft ring.

NAPLES, Italy — Federal investigators are warning Americans to watch out for shady salesmen who lure buyers with great deals on hot cars.

Really hot cars.

Officials have confiscated six stolen BMWs sold to Americans, and have tried to confiscate four others — only to find they’d been stolen again. One had been shipped to America and sent back by customs. All told, the cars are worth $300,000.

Buyers are losing the cars and their money. Most are still paying back big loans.

"All of this is just no good," said Greg Munroe, supervisory special agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service here. "We’re not going to get into the names and ranks, but some are young people who really can’t afford this."

The agency began its probe in September 1999, but is only now publicizing the investigation. Italian paramilitary police arrested three men last month, accusing them of running a network that trafficked stolen cars from all over Italy to the southern city of Naples.

Tony Lettera, the American agent heading the case, said that once the hot wheels arrived here, they were laundered for sale. The men allegedly stamped new vehicle identification numbers onto the dashboards, gave them new plates and forged legal papers on actual blank forms stolen from the Italian government.

"The investigation is not closed by any means," Munroe said. "We’re continuing to search files to see if there are any more cars. We don’t think we’ve got them all by any stretch of the imagination."

One of those arrested said the network operated for four years.

The NCIS is working with the Napoli Stella Company of the Carabinieri, Italy’s paramilitary police. An Italian investigator with the Carabinieri said he could not comment on his agency’s involvement.

One sailor who bought a 1997 BMW 318i for about half its book value was frustrated that checks by the Navy base’s motor vehicles registration office turned up nothing.

"Everything [they] told us to do, we did," said Chief Petty Officer Joe Childers, who now serves in Norfolk, Va. He said he didn’t know how the cars could have passed through inspectors without someone on the inside being in on the scam.

"I definitely wasn’t happy," Childers said.

Munroe defended the base motor vehicles staff, saying the forgeries — being on real Italian documents — were of high quality.

And when the base checked the vehicle identification numbers against those of stolen cars, nothing turned up. That’s because the numbers were "cloned." The actual numbers were valid — for some other car, somewhere else.

"There’s nothing for to say anyone from MVRO personally were any way involved in this," Munroe said.

Instead, he warned Americans to use common sense.

"Use the ‘reasonable man theory,’ " he said. "Would a common man question this? If so, it’s too good to be true. You’ve got to know something’s fishy."

None of the American buyers has been charged with any crime.

The stolen cars were often parked at the Allied Forces Southern Europe base with signs in their windows, Lettera said. The seller would never enter the base; instead, he would meet the buyer somewhere else to negotiate.

The price would be low — say, $9,000 instead of a book value about double that — but the original bill of sale would be a copy rather than an original. And the seller refused to give receipts, Munroe said.

Childers said a trusted friend referred him to the BMW. Not knowing it was stolen, Childers later sold it to his supervisor.

"I sold it to [Lt. Cmdr. Brian] Julian, who was my boss, and happened to be my friend."

It was early one morning when Julian found out something was wrong. An NCIS agent called him at 7 a.m. and told him to appear in the office at 9:30.

He had already had the car for about six months.

"I had no idea what it was about," Julian said. "They laid it out for me — and collected my keys."

He lost $17,000.

"I’m glad he was my friend," Childers said, adding that someone else may have sued.

Julian said he did file a claim against the Navy, asking for the BMW’s value since it approved the sale. Julian had bought the car from an American. It already had military license plates and was supposedly clean. He said he was told the Navy wasn’t liable.

"I’m bitter the government isn’t sticking by its people," Julian said.

Naval investigators said they want to sound the Klaxon so others don’t blow their money.

"This could be a warning to anyone in Germany, or anywhere in Italy," Munroe said.

Agent Lettera said there are 6,000 cars stolen each year in Naples. Typically, five or six cars are stolen from Americans stationed here each week.

Walking through an Italian impound lot this week, Lettera motioned to the six confiscated BMWs, including a swank 7-series sedan. The place was as packed as a commercial parking lot: fender to pricey fender.

Lettera then pointed out some other cars, unrelated to his case but a warning of Naples crime nonetheless: There was a curvy, slippery Audi with fake British plates. Police had seized it along the four kilos of cocaine found inside.

Lettera then pointed out a sexy Chrysler PT Cruiser, round-fendered and retro-grilled.

"This lot is full," he said, "of vehicles with false, fictitious plates."

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