4 Italians charged with selling fake Apple goods in DuPage County
Four Italian men have been charged with operating a $573,000 counterfeit electronics ring in DuPage County, where they would approach people and offer to sell them Apple and Samsung products at low prices.
Salvatore DeRosa, 50; Simone Signorelli, 23; Vincenzo Demartino, 49; and Luca Demartino, 25, all of Naples, Italy, are being detained pretrial.
They are charged with possession of counterfeit items with intent to sell — value exceeding $500,000.
Luca Demartino is Vincenzo Demartino’s son, according to court records.
Elmhurst police have received multiple reports in the last several months about men approaching people to sell electronic items, according to a petition for pretrial detention filed for Signorelli.
At 11:27 a.m. on May 7, Elmhurst police investigated a report of a suspicious vehicle in the 400 block of North Oak Street. A man reported a white Kia SUV pulled up to his driveway, and the driver got out and offered to sell him a cellphone. The man refused, according to the petition.
Police followed the Kia to a residence in the 2N300 block of Diane Avenue in Glen Ellyn.
Authorities say the four men rented the house via a short-term rental company. Police began watching it.
On May 8, authorities say they saw Vincenzo Demartino drive a Jeep to Roselle, where he offered to sell AirPods to landscape workers on Forest Avenue for $50 to $60. When they refused, he drove to Ardmore Avenue and tried to sell to another man.
Elmhurst police stopped the vehicle. When officers searched it, they found counterfeit items, including five Apple iPhones, five Apple Watches, 19 Apple AirPod Pros, three Apple battery packs, one Apple iPad, two Apple AirPod Maxs, three Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Cell Phones and one Dyson hair dryer, according to authorities. Vincenzo Demartino was arrested.
That same day, police say they saw Signorelli drive the Kia to a house in Hanover Park, then back to Glen Ellyn. Elmhurst police stopped him and searched the Kia, finding counterfeit items, including two Apple AirPod Maxs, five Apple iPhones, one Apple iPad, 16 Apple AirPod Pros, four Apple Watches and two Samsung Galaxy S25s. He then was arrested.
Police say they saw DeRosa leave the Glen Ellyn house on May 8 carrying several bags, which he put in a Hyundai Tucson. When police searched it, they found more than $45,000 in cash and counterfeit items, including 21 Apple AirPod Pros, four Apple iPhones, five Apple Watches, one Apple AirPod Max, one Apple iPad and three Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultras, according to authorities.
Later that day, Luca Demartino left in a Nissan Rogue. Officers stopped and searched it, finding more than $90,000 in cash.
Authorities recovered 767 counterfeit items in the Diane Avenue residence with an approximate value of $519,433. The total value of the counterfeit merchandise is estimated to be approximately $573,237.
According to the petition for pretrial detention, Signorelli, DeRosa and Vincenzo Demartino are also suspected in a March 12 fraud case in Elmhurst, where a woman bought AirPods from men who approached her in the parking lot of a Whole Foods grocery store. The petition also stated that the men told police they were about to move out of the Glen Ellyn house to one in St. Charles. One of the men told police the money was going to be used to open a restaurant in Italy, according to a petition for detention.
“The public needs to know there are criminals out working full-time each day to scam the innocent out of their hard-earned money,” Elmhurst Police Chief Michael McLean said in a press release. “If a deal seems too good to be true, it almost always is.”
DeRosa and Signorelli are due back in court on June 2. The Demartinos’ next court date is June 17.