During the warm months, Italy’s Guardia di Finanza launched a coordinated inspection drive that logged roughly 14,000 operational hours across the most visited coastal and inland areas. The campaign focused on uncovering illegal work undeclared short-term rentalscounterfeit products and even drug trafficking with the aim of protecting public revenue and consumer safety.
Temporary units supplied by regional prefectures boosted the force’s visibility on highways and in city centres. More than 530 vehicle patrols and close to 1,000 spot checks resulted in the identification of nearly 1,800 individuals, the issuance of dozens of administrative fines, a series of criminal complaints and the seizure of thousands of non-compliant items.
Ravenna: hidden labor and counterfeit goods
In the Emilia-Romagna province of Ravenna, inspectors carried out 36 dedicated checks on employment practices. They discovered 21 workers operating completely off the books and another 13 whose contracts were irregular. Of the 22 employers cited, about 15 % have already regularised contributions with the national pension agency (INPS). Parallel consumer-protection raids conducted 66 times resulted in the confiscation of roughly 4,400 items classified as counterfeit or non-compliant, ranging from household appliances to personal-care cosmetics.
Fiscal compliance was examined through 600 inspections of the link between POS terminals and telematic registrars, revealing a widespread failure to issue the required fiscal certificate. Audits of short-term rentals uncovered undeclared taxable revenue close to €550,000. Customs-related checks intercepted cash flows totalling about €800,000 across 64 operations, while monitoring of fuel distributors highlighted eight violations out of 21 inspections.
Vicenza: underground employment and tax gaps
Moving north to the Veneto province of Vicenza, the finance police identified 70 undocumented workers, including 38 fully illegal cases, and recorded a cumulative total of 154 “black-market” employees and 168 irregular individuals since 1 January 2026. Fiscal reviews of night-life venues—particularly DJs and live-music events—revealed undeclared earnings exceeding €150,000.
Property-use verification on the Asiago plateau assessed whether homes advertised as primary residence actually served that purpose. The first three assessments recovered €15,300 in overdue property tax (IMU) and more than €4,000 in reclaimed tax credits on €21,000 of mortgage-interest payments. Consumer raids also seized 945 household items and 422 nail-polish containers containing substances banned by the EU, with the responsible parties forwarded to prosecutors. A street vendor was caught selling 112 counterfeit clothing pieces, prompting an open-court arrest warrant.
Teramo: holiday rentals and drug checks
Along the Adriatic coast of Abruzzo, the focus turned to holiday homes. Inspections revealed that 25 % of the sampled properties lacked the mandatory regional identification code (CIR) required for legal tourism rentals, leading to administrative penalties. In the extra-hotel hospitality sector—including bars, pizzerias and beach clubs—irregularities appeared in 75 % of cases, exposing more than 30 undeclared workers and 14 employees who had incorrectly received unemployment benefits (Naspi).
Product-seizure operations captured 1,400 items, among them 350 counterfeit garments and over 11,000 goods missing proper production origin or ingredient labels, posing safety risks. Anti-drug actions linked to summer festivals such as the “Rainbow Music Festival” and the “Transumare Fest” generated around 50 reports of narcotics violations; seized substances included a pink powder nicknamed “tussi,” a blend of ketamine, MDMA, caffeine and colourants.
The integrated approach—combining road patrols, specialised units and a citizen hotline—demonstrates how the Guardia di Finanza leverages both traditional enforcement and community tips to safeguard Italy’s economy and public health.
