MILAN, Italy --
Italian financial police have busted a ring of professionals who built fake Ferraris using other auto platforms and sold them at bargain counterfeit prices as cheap as euro20,000 (US$30,000) a piece, officials said Thursday.
Authorities have confiscated 14 fake Ferrari Modena 360s - seven sold and seven under construction - in an operation reaching from Palermo to Milan, police official Guido Geremia said, head of the Palermo unit of the Italian financial police that led the investigation. Eight people are under investigation.
Investigators do not know how many of the cars have been sold in the past - but Geremia said the buyers knew the cars were fakes and were clearly seeking to impress less-knowing neighbors with the high-priced speed machines. "That is the only reason," he said.
The ring used mostly Pontiacs as their base, but also Mercedes and Toyotas, building a copy of a Ferrari body over the original car's engine. "It was done very well, they were very skilled," Geremia said.
The financial police, who lead Italy's fight against counterfeiters cashing in on the peninsula's reputation for quality in everything from handbags to prosciutto, launched the Ferrari investigation six months ago. Geremia said they were aided by Internet sites where the cars were being offered.
The 360 Modena went out of production in 2004, when it was priced at euro142,000, said Ferrari spokeswoman Mariella Mengozzi. The current suggested retail price by Italy's consumer auto magazine on a 2004 model is around euro100,000 (US$150,000).
Mengozzi said it is not the first time that the Ferrari brand has been copied and that the automaker, which is owned by the Fiat Group, monitors Web sites for evidence of fakes - even coming across videos of body shops reworking other cars into Ferraris.
"Ferrari is a product that maintains its value over time and of course we try to protect our clients who buy the real thing. When a car is not official, it does not have the characteristics it should have for the brand," Mengozzi said.
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