Carmelo Miano had as his accomplice a policeman, originally from Gela like him and co-investigated for unauthorized access to the computer system, with which he managed some illegal black markets, thanks to which they allegedly collected more than 5 million euros in cryptocurrency. The 23-year-old hacker, who had his operational headquarters in an apartment in the Garbatella district of Rome, was arrested by the postal police following input from the Naples Prosecutor’s Office on charges of having violated not only the “Single Register of Justice” , but also the emails of three prosecutors (Erica Battaglia, Federica Scuderi, Luigi Fede) and the secretariat of the Gela prosecutor “exporting the full content”, the computer networks of the police and the Financial Police, as well as the systems of Tim and Wind .
Carmelo Miano, the Garbatella hacker admits the attacks on the Ministry’s servers: “Sieve systems”
He was moved by the “desire for affirmation and enrichment”, we read in the investigating judge’s order, but also by a specific motive: “to acquire information and documents relating to the investigations (by the Brescia Prosecutor’s Office, ed.) which in 2020 had led to the closure of a “black market” and the seizure of cryptocurrency portfolios for significant values”. The 23-year-old’s parents fit into this picture: Antonino Miano and Antonella Testoni «were essentially aware “figureheads”», that their son Carmelo and the deputy police superintendent Ivano Impellizzeri (first on duty at the Gela police station and now in the of Niscemi) «used to open accounts through which the money resulting from the illicit activity passed». The hacker and the policeman move “to observe, control and prevent any judicial initiatives”, explain the Naples prosecutors. Precisely by virtue of his position at the Gela police station, last December 6th Impellizieri explained to Miano that he had had «yet another meeting with the doctor» and that «everything should be resolved for the best, even in a very short time», adding: « Stay calm in this respect and, in the meantime, you’ll be here on Sunday. Then we talk about other things in person.” The two actually met in Sicily for the Christmas holidays. The investigation also shows that the manager asked the 23-year-old to illegally access Wind-Tre’s systems “in order to identify the holders of some telephone accounts”.
Another hacker was also involved in the illegal black market game, Gabriele Taccucci, 35 years old, resident in the province of Reggio Emilia, who together with Miano would be the author of the cyber attack on the email accounts of the financiers of the special unit for protection of privacy and fraud technicians who had conducted the searches against them. Both are defined as “a person with a strong aptitude for IT and hacking, with a strong resentment towards those who carried out the investigations”.
Carmelo Miano, who is the Garbatella hacker who passed the news to the Russians (betrayed by a porn site)
«Caught at sea»
When Carmelo Miano understands that the risk of arrest is increasingly concrete – a fear founded on the fact that he manages to “penetrate” the IT systems of the Prosecutor’s Office in real time – he involves two other hacker friends of his, now under investigation for aiding and abetting: Luca Basili, Roman 23 years old, and Lorenzo Albani, 26 years old originally from Orvieto but resident in Holland. Last January, sharing his screen with Basili, he showed him an information from the Finance Department just filed with the Gela prosecutors from which it emerges that Miano is under investigation. The friend bursts out laughing. Then the nerd from Garbatella continues: «Wait for me, I’ll make you laugh… the worst part is over here» and scrolls the document downwards until he reaches the request for a precautionary measure in prison against him and of Impellizzeri, in addition to the seizure of 6,298,879 euros. At that point Basili gets scared and says: “I don’t want to know anything, I’m going to get out of it, I don’t want to know anything at all… I mean, I don’t know… I mean, reading these things is terrifying.” Last June 28, Miano “gave his friends instructions to manage the new “wallet” (probably alluding to bitcoin) in the event that he was in difficulty”, we read in the arrest request. In particular, «Basili revealed himself to be responsible for also collecting the “heritage” of Miano», who on that occasion told him: «Today I went on a raid». A friend asks for explanations: «I don’t understand, are they created like this or are they always the same?», probably alluding to the process of “minning” (extraction) of cryptocurrencies, and Basili replies: «I’m with the fishing rod and you shoot like this. .. caught in the open sea.”
Risk of blackmail
From the investigations, it emerged that Miano «also managed to “exfiltrate” confidential data and documents present in the electronic spaces, starting from judicial police information concerning him, which he acquired and stored in remote spaces also located abroad» : in particular, servers in France, Holland, Germany and Spain. Countries, explains the prosecutor, where “he may have stored data, passwords and information with which to carry out blackmail”. The 23-year-old also managed to access the “Russian Market” portal, “dedicated to the illegal sale of sensitive information, such as passwords, banking details and credit cards”.
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