Clandestine excavations, widespread throughout the Italian territory, represent a significant threat to cultural heritage. As the cradle of Magna Graecia, Southern Italy is an undisputed witness to this destructive phenomenon. These illicit activities strip artifacts of their original context, compromise history, and hinder research. The profit-driven counterfeit industry thrives due to the ample supply of raw materials essential for the counterfeiting processes within the region. In addressing these challenges, this study adopts a multidisciplinary approach, merging forensic investigations with archaeometric analyses, to authenticate ceramic artifacts recovered from clandestine excavations by the Carabinieri Unit for the Protection of Cultural Heritage and Anti-Counterfeiting in Cosenza, Calabria, Italy. Despite some documented stylistic- iconographic incoherent features compared to the same typology finds certainly authentic, the archaeometric results achieved so far demonstrate the compatibility of the majority of the examined samples. Additional studies with further analytical investigations using microscopic, geochemical, and physical methods on micro-samples will be essential to confirm the preliminary data.