'Snooping gang's clients could help spies flee'

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 30 - A few "clients" of an alleged snooping gang that harvested secret data from sensitive national databases to compile dossiers on commission were "aware" that the "investigative activities they requested" were illegal and could help members of the hacking group flee to "avoid repercussion", Carabinieri police of Varese's investigative unit wrote in court papers published on Wednesday.
    In the papers dating back to last June, Carabinieri investigators said hacker Nunzio Samuele Calamucci, one of the alleged ringleaders who is under house arrest, used to fly with a private Swiss carrier.
    Investigations carried out in cooperation with Europol found that, although no private flights were monitored over the last period, Calamucci had requested information at least once on a flight between London and Rome in March 2022.
    Speaking about a "flight risk", investigators also included in the court papers a wiretap from February 2023 in which Calamucci commented "data included in Beyond", the gang's platform, "regarding fugitive Accarino Salvatore", claiming that he was in hiding thanks to the gang.
    The probe into illegal hacking and snooping on personal police and interior ministry files is believed to involve more than 800,000 victims, according to investigative sources.
    The gang allegedly targeted mainly business figures but also high-ranking politicians, athletes and showbusiness personalities, police have said. (ANSA).