The Gdf seizes one hundred kilos of drugs and half a million euros. Nine arrested
The operation is by the Catania Guardia di Finanza and also involves Udine. Two criminal associations imported drugs from abroad and exported them to Malta
Since the early hours of this morning, Thursday 26 September, over 40 financial police officers from the Provincial Command of the Guardia di Finanza of Catania have been executing, as part of the operation called "El loco", in the provinces of Catania, Oristano and Udine , two orders from the Judge for preliminary investigations at the local Court with which personal and real precautionary measures have been ordered against 9 people , held responsible, in various capacities and in conjunction with 12 other people, for the crimes of organised trafficking and dealing of narcotics with the aggravating circumstance of transnationality.
The investigations, carried out by specialized units of the Economic and Financial Police Unit of Catania - GICO Anti-Drug Operations Group, would have allowed the structure of two distinct criminal gangs to be outlined , ascertaining their modus operandi characterized by tested and consolidated stratagems aimed at the importation into the national territory and exportation to the island of Malta of narcotic and psychotropic substances as well as their retail sale in local drug dealing areas.
In detail, a first association would have been operational in the Etna hinterland and in the province of Syracuse , but with transnational ramifications, dealing directly with the supply, also through importation from Spain, of narcotics such as cocaine, hashish and marijuana , carrying out the relative transports both towards Italy and Malta.
The second criminal group would have exploited the other association's ability to move significant quantities of drugs to take care of the management of the retail sale of the narcotic in the local drug dealing areas of the provinces of Catania and Syracuse. The point of contact between the two association structures would have been a subject belonging to both criminal groups .
During the investigations, several seizures of narcotic substances were carried out in several phases for a total quantity of approximately 18 kg of cocaine, 41 kg of hashish and 50 kg of marijuana which led to the arrest, in flagrante delicto, of 8 subjects. The preventive seizure of movable and immovable assets, financial resources and other utilities for 485,000 euros was also ordered, corresponding to the profit deriving from the trafficking of narcotic substances .
