Italian passports are usually the cheapest western EU ones when it comes to fake IDs (I can also add the Austrian and Greek to the list). They are used by North African/Middle Eastern people smugglers due to the ethnic resemblance between Italians (southern half, especially) and those people. There's even no need to alter the photo for some cases.
*One of the Iranians who boarded MH370 to get from Malaysia to Germany successfully used an altered Italian passport.

Naples is also the European stronghold of counterfeit IDs and money, so extra scrutiny is always in effect once links with Naples are found.

And last but not least I think in all fairness that Italy needs to step up its game regarding IDs, it is laughable to still issue paper national IDs with a photo glued on it in 2017 in most municipalities. No wonder why UK border folks grill Italians using their IDs to get into Britain.