ROME, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Police in Italy's Sicilian city of Palermo said Wednesday they have arrested 11 people and busted two criminal gangs who deliberately maimed people in order to stage fake accidents and scam insurance companies, causing the death of at least one of their victims.
The suspects nabbed in the so-called Operation Tantalus "struck the limbs of willing victims ... causing them fractures and forcing them onto crutches or wheelchairs in order to defraud insurance companies," state police tweeted.
Police said that "the death of a Tunisian citizen whose body was found on an outlying road in January 2017 was due to multiple fractures caused by ...members of a criminal organization in order to stage a fake accident."
"They recruited the mentally disabled, drug addicts, alcoholics, and people in severe financial distress, and convinced them to let them break their bones, promising them larger insurance rewards if they agreed to more severe injuries," Palermo Flying Squad Chief Rodolfo Ruperto explained at a televised press conference, describing the methods used as "tribal".
"They dropped very heavy iron disks weighing 20-25 kilos, of the kind used (for weightlifting equipment) in gyms, on the limbs of these unfortunate people, who were attracted by the mirage of an insurance payout which they never received anyway," Ruperto said.
The gang members pocketed the insurance money and did not share it with their victims, Ruperto said.
Among those arrested is a nurse at a Palermo hospital who allegedly supplied the gangs with anesthetics, and an insurance expert. A total of 60 people are under investigation in the case, according to ANSA news agency.
